Scotland's independence from UK would be a painful divorce, says Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called Scotland’s potential separation from the UK a “painful divorce”.

Ahead of a referendum for independence on Thursday, Cameron urged Scots to vote to remain in the UK.

"If Scotland votes yes, the UK will split, and we will go our separate ways forever," Cameron said in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, according to Reuters.

"Independence would not be a trial separation it would be a painful divorce," Cameron said, adding that a vote against independence would trigger an unprecedented devolution of powers to Scotland.

Earlier in the day, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond accused Cameron of launching a “scaremongering campaign” to for a referendum ‘no’ vote.

He claimed Cameron had tried to sway businesses, including supermarkets and banks, to issue warnings over the impact of a split.

Salmond suggested that the Treasury may have leaked details of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s plan to move its headquarters to London if the Scots vote to break away from the UK.

"When you try to pressurise people, pressurise companies, as the Prime Minister has undoubtedly been doing and indeed the Treasury, then that's a different circumstance,” he said at Edinburgh Airport, Sky News said.

"I think people in Scotland will know the Prime Minister's fingerprints are all over the scaremongering campaign and the Treasury's fingerprints are all over the bank campaign."

The Queen, meanwhile, has urged Scots to think very carefully before they vote in the referendum

In a rare intervention, the Queen steered clear of endorsing either campaign but admitted to well-wishers who had gathered for the Sunday service near her Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire that she hoped “people will think very carefully about the future”.

Buckingham Palace insisted the Queen was completely impartial to the referendum: "We never comment on private exchanges or conversations,” said a spokeswoman for the Palace.

Over the past few days, opinion polls delivered largely similar results, with an Opinium poll for the Observer finding that the ‘no’ campaign was ahead with 53% to 47% for the ‘yes’ movement, while a ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph stretched the lead to eight points, 54% to 46%.

The significance of the ICM poll was, however, played down as its sample was only 700, some 300 units below the normal threshold of 1,000 voters.

A poll by Panelbase for the Sunday Times had the two campaign separated by only two points, with the ‘no’ campaign leading the ‘yes’ movement 51% to 49%.