Cameron pleads with Scots ‘we want you to stay’ in UK

David Cameron has told Scots that he "won’t be here forever" but a decision to leave the UK would be forever, as he pleaded with voters to reject independence.

The British prime minister returned to the referendum campaign trail in Aberdeen, as his rival Alex Salmond continued his bid for a Yes vote in Edinburgh and Stirling.

Speaking to an invited audience at the city’s exhibition and conference centre, Mr Cameron delivered a “message to the people of Scotland” from the rest of the UK.

“We want you to stay,” he said. “Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay.

“Please don’t mix up the temporary and the permanent.

“Please don’t think: ‘I’m frustrated with politics right now, so I’ll walk out the door and never come back’.

“If you don’t like me — I won’t be here forever.

“If you don’t like this government — it won’t last forever.

“But if you leave the UK — that will be forever.”

Mr Cameron warned that a vote for independence would result in a “painful divorce” for the UK.

He also reassured voters that a No vote would trigger “a major, unprecedented programme of devolution with additional powers for the Scottish Parliament”, without Scottish people losing the “UK pension, the UK pound and the UK passport”. But the overwhelming message in his speech was an emotional plea to voters to stay.

Mr Cameron said: “At the end of the day, all the arguments of this campaign can be reduced to a single fact. We are better together.

“Don’t forget what a great United Kingdom you are part of. Don’t turn your backs on what is the best family of nations in the world, and the best hope for your family in this world.

“So please, from all of us: Vote to stick together. Vote to stay. Vote to save our United Kingdom.”

In contrast to Mr Cameron’s speech from behind a lectern, Mr Salmond took to the streets of Stirling to attend a rally with thousands of Yes supporters.

The First Minster posed for selfies and shook hands with supporters as he made his way to a stage on King Street. He praised the grassroots element of the Yes campaign and urged those present to continue working for a Yes vote in the final days of the campaign.

Earlier he visited Edinburgh Airport where he claimed Mr Cameron’s “fingerprints are all over a scaremongering” campaign by banks, businesses and leading retailers who have voiced their concerns over independence.

Mr Salmond said: “The next time he (Mr Cameron) comes to Scotland it will not be to love-bomb or engage in desperate last- minute scaremongering, and following a Yes vote it will be to engage in serious post-referendum talks in the best interests of the people of Scotland and the rest of the UK, as pledged in the Edinburgh Agreement.

“From our side, those talks will be taken forward with a Team Scotland approach, involving people on a cross-party basis encompassing talents from across the spectrum.”