Gordon Brown: A Scottish parlaiment will cut waste and bureaucracy

Brown and Blair Rule Out Scottish Tax Rises

And Mr Brown insisted that business was demonstrating its confidence in the future of Scotland with a devolved Parliament by continuing to make major investments, although new poll results would seem to contradict the Chancellor.

But the Conservative constitutional affairs spokesman, Michael Ancram, warned that the Labour Government would have to ask "serious questions" if turn-out was low in Thursday's referendum north of the border.

The comments came as devolution campaigns resumed in earnest in Scotland and Wales after the enforced break in the debate due to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

He will be pushing for a `yes, yes' vote in Thursday's referendum: yes to a Scottish parliament and yes to that parliament being handed tax-varying powers of up to 3p up or down.

But Mr Blair stressed that, though he hoped the Scottish Parliament would be able to vary tax, under this Labour Government, it would not exercise those powers.

"What is being proposed here is a power to vary revenue of the nature of less than 5% of the overall budget - and the smallest local authority has a revenue-varying power.

"That's a commitment that we've made that holds in Scotland as well as elsewhere. But, for the Parliament to have this flexibility and have this power, seems to me entirely sensible," the Prime Minister said.

Actor Sean Connery lends his weight to the Yes-Yes campaign

Mr Blair confirmed that the Government had considered delaying the referendum vote in the light of Diana's death but it would have required MPs sitting in Parliament last week. "I personally don't think that would have looked terribly seemly," he said.

Mr Brown, speaking on GMTV's Sunday programme, said the new Parliament would not need to raise taxes for the first five years: "Because the first job of this Scottish Parliament is to look at whether the money, existing money - £14 billion of money - is well spent. And they will be wanting to save money, cut waste, cut bureaucracy and red tape."

Later the Chancellor, along with pro-Scottish National Party actor Sean Connery, announced new jobs at the Rosyth shipyard. He said he was highlighting the 18th new inward investment in Scotland since the election.

"International investors are expressing confidence in Scotland in the full knowledge that our institutions are being modernised, that change is taking place, that these proposals are on the table, and I think that is a vote of confidence in the Scottish economy."

Connery's Appeal Greeted With Ovation

Mr Connery, the former James Bond actor, made a dramatic appeal to his fellow Scots to vote "yes, yes" referendum. In a two-minute speech the 007 star asked them to vote for their "rightful heritage" - not for glory, riches or honour but for liberty.

He said the issue was "above and beyond" party politics.

Connery, who lives in Spain but has campaigned for an independent Scotland since the 1960s, was speaking at a cross-party rally hosted by pro-devolution group Scotland FORward in Edinburgh's Old Royal High School - one of the possible sites for a Scottish parliament.

His remarks were greeted by rapturous applause from a crowd of around 300, overshadowed those of the politicians present.

He said Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar had laid down that there would be clear rules about the way candidates and members behaved.

"We are determined to show that, as a governing party, we can have the best candidates, those with great integrity, and I think that people understand that the measures that we are taking to scrutinise, to vet candidates, will achieve exactly that," he said.

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