Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey has called for a debate on how the United Kingdom can evolve and improve. 

Speaking in the House of Lords during a debate on the Scottish Independence Referendum, Lord Empey said: 

“The Ulster Unionist Party would love to participate in a debate on how we can help the United Kingdom to evolve. We need to look at how the Union could evolve and improve – how we could make things better. 

“Of course it is perfectly possible for Scotland to be independent. The people of Scotland have the skills and ability to survive on their own, however they will do so at a different level of economic and political influence. That is the risk they run. 

“I have never seen such a significant constitutional issue come before us so ill thought-through. We are taking a leap into the dark. The people of Scotland are being asked to walk over a cliff edge in the hope that the SNP will catch them as they fall. 

“I feel so concerned that so little thought has been given to the downstream implications of this. 

“I can say for almost certain that those of us remaining in the United Kingdom in the event of a yes vote would have to determine our response on the currency issue. Are we seriously going to pick up after the Scottish National Party – guarantee it, be lender of last resort? 

“Who in their right mind wants to be an independent country but have their money supply, interest rates, public spending and lender of last resort outside their borders? That’s not independence at all: that is servitude. You are a client state, like some of the old Soviet republics. Sufficient detail has not been debated.”