PM Blair Was Told: UK Cannot Stop A Scots Indy Ballot

Secret files from Tony Blair’s early days in Government – released today by the National Archives – reveal some Scots MPs’ feared a vote for devolution would be a ‘slippery slope’ to independence

- Ryan Hooper

Downing Street advisers privately conceded that Scotland could have a referendum on “anything it wants” without Westminster’s consent, previously classified documents from Tony Blair’s premiership reveal.

An email from the then prime minister’s aide Pat McFadden ahead of releasing plans for devolution in 1997 also revealed “a couple of very worried Scottish MPs” were concerned about “the slippery slope to independence”.