British PM to campaign in Scotland for No vote

A woman is seen at a window on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept 9, 2014. The referendum on Scottish independence will take place on Sept 18, when Scotland will vote whether or not to end the 307-year-old union with the rest of the United Kingdom. [Photo/Agencies]

EDINBURGH - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday said that he will travel to Scotland on Wednesday to campaign for a No vote eight days ahead of Scotland's independence referendum.

Announced via Twitter and Facebook feeds, the trip was set to be joined by Labor Party Leader Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democratic Pary, to campaign for the Better Together Union.

All three leaders will miss Prime Minister's questions on Wednesday, amid indications in polls that Scottish voters could vote to leave Britain in the referendum on Sept 18.

David denied that the trip was a desperate move, noting that "I'll do everything that I can. Let's be frank, there's a lot that the political leaders disagree about but there's one thing that we all agree about passionately and that is that our United Kingdom is better off if we stay together."

"So tomorrow the right place to be isn't Westminster at Prime Minister's Questions, it is being in Scotland, listening to people, talking to people," he said.

The British Prime Minister said that the three leaders will have their own ways, separately, of talking about why it is better together in the Union, reiterating that "it's a matter for people in Scotland to decide, but we want you to stay."

The three leaders will not campaign together and will have separate schedules, while they are in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that it had been the day that the Better Together No campaign "fell apart."

"This is a retreading, a repackaging, retimetabling about what they said in the spring," he said, alleging that it's totally inadequate to approach the powers that Scotland needs to create jobs, to save the health service and build a better society.

He maintained that the polls at the weekend, which caused so much panic in the breasties of the No campaign, actually showed that independence was the most popular option.

On Sunday, the published YouGov Plc's survey for the Sunday Times put the "Yes" voters ahead of the "No" voters for the first time by 51 percent against 49 percent.

On Tuesday morning, a TNS poll put the Yes and No campaigns equal on 41 percent, backing for the Yes campaign was up from 38 percent last month, while support for maintaining the union had dropped from 46 percent.

In October 2012, Cameron and Salmond signed the Edinburgh Agreement, allowing Scotland to hold an independence referendum in autumn 2014 on the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?"