GORDON Brown will tomorrow urge traditional Labour voters, flirting with supporting independence, to reject the idea and stick with the Union as a new poll showed strong support for the former Prime Minister's insistence that pooling UK-wide resources benefits Scotland.
In the YouGov snapshot of 1,000 Scots for the Better Together campaign almost eight out of 10 said they wanted pensions and other benefits to be paid the same across the whole of the United Kingdom. It also showed only 21% of SNP supporters supported different levels of pensions and benefits.
But the SNP dismissed the "Labour Party poll", stressing how a more authoritative one, the Scottish Social Attitudes survey, showed 63% of Scots believed decisions about welfare, pensions and oil revenues should be made at Holyrood, not Westminster.
Mr Brown will speak alongside Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, as the party launches its referendum campaign at a rally in Glasgow. His address will respond directly to a bid by the SNP to woo working-class voters, who have in the past loyally voted Labour at elections.
Responding to the poll's findings, an SNP spokesman said: "From the bedroom tax to child benefit cuts and the squandering of North Sea revenues, Westminster's stewardship of welfare and the economy has caused untold harm to communities across Scotland."
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