A row between Gordon Brown and the leader of the Scottish Labour party over an independence referendum intensified yesterday, amid deepening confusion over government policy towards a vote. As the Tories accused Labour of endangering the UK's future, Wendy Alexander appeared to defy the prime minister by intensifying demands for an immediate poll.
"I and my colleagues have ... offered our support to bring this issue forward now," Alexander said in noisy exchanges in the Scottish parliament at Holyrood. Her remarks undermined Brown's central defence in the row: that Alexander was not calling for an immediate poll.
