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The former Labour prime minister is understood to have told a new biography that he was always against the “Project Fear” tactics used by the Unionist campaign during the independence referendum.
Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose by James Macintyre is set to be published on February 23 by Bloomsbury.
The Scotland on Sunday reports that the book notes that Brown “still blames the cross-party Better Together campaign for Labour’s collapse in Scotland”.
In 2011, Alex Salmond took the SNP to a victory in the Scottish Parliament by returning a majority of MSPs. Scottish Labour came in second place with 37 MSPs, to the SNP’s 69.
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However, following the referendum, the 2015 general election saw the SNP take 40 seats from Labour, leaving the party with one representative north of the Border. They also took 10 seats from the LibDems, also leaving them with one MP in Scotland.
The SNP remained the dominant party in both Holyrood and Westminster until the 2024 general election. Scottish Labour won 37 seats, taking 36 from the SNP.
But now, as voters are set to head to the polls on May 7 2026, Scottish Labour are trailing behind, largely seen to be due to Keir Starmer’s stark unpopularity as Prime Minister and unhappiness with the Labour administration in Westminster.
Brown, it appears, still blames the tactics used by the No side in the 2014 referendum for his party’s misfortunes.
He told the biography: "I was always against Project Fear. You cannot say to Scottish people, you’re too poor or too weak or too stupid to be independent."
Macintyre is understood to have written in the book: “Brown, who spoke at nearly a hundred rallies across Scotland, had wanted a distinct Labour pro-union campaign, and had privately asked David Cameron and [then Chancellor] George Osborne for half the ‘No’ funds to go to Labour for that purpose. The Tories had refused.”
“Osborne had stuck to the cynical and dry economic arguments based on keeping the pound sterling, insisting that Scots would be worse off on the outside,” the author adds.
“The lack of inspiring politics in the campaign had been part of what had frustrated Brown.”
Brown infamously promised further powers for Holyrood in the event of a No vote. The Vow, published on the front page of the Daily Record two days before the vote, promised “extensive new power” if Scotland remained part of the UK. It was published shortly after a poll put Yes in the lead.
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Salmond previously credited it with swaying public opinion against independence.
In 2023, Jamie Hepburn, then Scotland’s minister for independence, urged Brown to apologise for the promises he made in the Vow.
He told The Herald the former prime minister made promises that “would have made even snake-oil salesmen blush”.
The biography also tells of Brown’s fury when then-Tory prime minister David Cameron called for English votes for English Laws the day after the referendum. Brown apparently tried to speak to Cameron, but the then-PM denied the call from his predecessor.