Lord Steel warns against bungled intervention in Independence debate

A former Holyrood presiding officer has warned David Cameron and other senior English politicians to stay out of the Scottish independence debate at the risk of handing victory to the SNP.

Lord Steel, a Liberal Democrat peer, accused the coalition Government of handling the referendum “very badly” and said it would be “plain bonkers” for Chancellor George Osbourne to lead the ‘no’ campaign.

Speaking to Westminster’s The House magazine, Lord Steel said that David Cameron “has played into Alex Salmond’s hands”.

“The problem with the Scottish issue is that most of the politicians here don’t understand Alex Salmond…he is extremely sharp, witty.”

“Salmond is inconsistent, but he gets away with it because he is very bullish.”

“The idea that George Osbourne should take on a ‘no’ referendum campaign…is just plain bonkers – if I were Alex Salmond I would be rubbing my hands in glee at the thought.”

Lord Steel called for the ‘no’ referendum campaign to stay a debate in Scotland, saying: “It’s up to Scottish politicians, not Cameron, Osbourne, or even my own dear leader [Nick Clegg], to get heavily involved in it.”

“It’s no good having so-called big guns flying in from down south because Salmond will just dismiss it as London bullying, even though he does the bullying himself. It will just backfire.”

Meanwhile, the SNP saw what they called “an unprecedented surge in party membership following David Cameron’s intervention into Scottish politics.”

Party membership was boosted by 4 per cent after 784 new members joined over the course of five days.

In a press release, the SNP said: “Following the revelation that the Tory government plan to dictate the terms of the independence referendum from London, new members have been joining the SNP at a rate of one new member every nine minutes.”

SNP Business Convener, Derek Mackay MSP, welcomed the new members and the public support, saying: “David Cameron should reflect on the fact that the SNP has 800 more activists just days after his blundering intervention into Scottish politics.”

In October the SNP set a target of doubling party membership just before the referendum.