Miliband to make passionate plea for Scotland to remain in the Union

Ed Miliband will make an impassioned plea to retain Scotland’s place at the top table of the UK union.

In rallying the party faithful behind the campaign to save the union, he will steer clear of the plethora of policy disasters which have plagued Alex Salmond’s plans for independence, and will instead use the story of one party activist to drive home his message.

In 2011, Cathy Murphy from Glasgow was attending the party conference in Liverpool when she was rushed to hospital having been diagnosed with a serious heart condition the previous year. Doctors prepared her family for the worst, but she survived, and continues to attend the hospital in Liverppol for check-ups – a hospital which is blind to whereabouts in the UK she comes from.

Miliband will tell the conference:

“Let’s make sure, over the next year, we win the battle for the most important institution of all: our country.

“There are many ways to debate this issue, facts and figures, argument and counter argument. But let me just tell you one story which says it all. It’s the story of Cathy Murphy, who lives in Glasgow and works at a local supermarket.

“In 2010, she was diagnosed with a serious heart problem. She came to the Labour conference as a delegate in 2011 in Liverpool and fell seriously ill. The doctors feared the worst. They thought she would die and called her family down from Glasgow. But, somehow, they managed to stabilise her condition.”

He will continue:

“Some weeks later, they undertook a 14-hour operation at the Liverpool Broadgreen Hospital to save her life. And she pulled through and eventually returned home to Glasgow. She still works at the local supermarket.

“She comes back to Liverpool every six months for a check-up. And you know what? The doctors and nurses don’t ask whether she lives in England or Scotland. They don’t ask whether she is Scottish or English. No.”

“They know she is: Scottish and British. Cathy is with us today, back as a conference delegate. I don’t want Cathy to become a foreigner. Let’s keep our United Kingdom together.”