Labour MP Frank Field has urged Gordon Brown to hold an immediate UK-wide referendum on the future of the union.

The former welfare minister, who led a backbench revolt against axing the 10p tax rate, said a break-up of the UK should not be for the people of Scotland alone to decide.

He claims that separation is inevitable if Brown allows Alex Salmond to press ahead with his plans for a referendum.

Field wants everyone to be given a say in the nation’s constitutional future and claims that if the Scots voted for independence while England voted against, the prime minister should not negotiate the union’s demise with the first minister.

Field says there is resentment south of the border at perceived higher levels of public spending in Scotland and at Scottish MPs voting on England-only legislation. He says the only way to resolve what he calls the “English question”, is to hold a nationwide poll. Writing in The Sunday Times, Field says: “Unless Gordon Brown wrongfoots him \ by addressing the English question and by holding a UK-wide referendum before he has the chance to build up a head of steam, then the break of Britain, and indeed of the Labour party, looks certain.

“It is Westminster MPs, not the Scottish parliament, who must stage the referendum and decide on the key referendum issues because the future of the union is too important to the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to be determined by the Scots alone.

“English voters should be given an equal say on whether the UK is to be broken up, and if so, on what terms. If a majority of people in the British Isles vote to maintain the union then the UK government should not enter into negotiations with the SNP to tear it up.”

However, Brown has made it clear that he is “unpersuaded” on a UK referendum.

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