GORDON BROWN yesterday continued Labour’s onslaught against the Scottish National party, urging Scots not to be “deceived” into supporting independence.

Speaking at Labour’s Scottish party conference, the chancellor warned that everyone in the UK would suffer economically and culturally if Scotland broke away. Brown said Scotland’s economic future was inextricably linked to Britain and that it was a model for the rest of the world of how countries should work together.

The chancellor fears that pressure may build for a referendum on independence if the SNP does well in May’s Scottish parliament elections. The Nationalists have promised a vote if they win an outright majority, though this is unlikely. It is more probable that the SNP would have to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who would block such a move.

However, Brown does not want the early days of his premiership, which may coincide with the Scottish elections if he is elected leader, to be overshadowed by renewed debate on the issue.

His comments followed his warning earlier in the week that English people would need passports to travel to Scotland if the SNP seized power.

He said the 2.5m Scots living in England, and the 400,000 English-born people resident north of the border were a sign the countries were moving closer together, not further apart.

Later Hazel Blears, the chairwoman of the Labour party, warned Scots would lose their jobs and mortgages in an independent Scotland. “I know some people in Scotland want to send a signal to the Labour party. But a vote for the SNP doesn’t punish Labour, it punishes every one of us. It puts your jobs at risk, your mortgage and your future at risk.”

During a speech in which he outlined proposals to make education the top priority if Labour formed the next Holyrood administration, Jack McConnell, the first minister, joined Brown and Blears with a further attack on the SNP.

“Alex Salmond wants to run the economy on a dwindling supply of oil. I want to run our economy on Scotland’s most precious resource, the talents and skills of our people and children,” he said.

McConnell pledged that by 2012 no 16 or 17-year-old would leave school without being “meaningfully engaged” in education, work or training.

The first minister also set out a range of policies that Labour would commit to if it was to be returned to power after next May’s Holyrood elections. They included a full employment agency to get a further 100,000 Scots into work and health checks for men and double the number of community wardens.

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