SCOTTISH independence will be Boris Johnson’s legacy as Prime Minister if it happens under his leadership, Gordon Brown has said.

It comes as Ian Blackford told Johnson yesterday in the House of Commons that, “a fight with democracy is a fight he will never, not ever, win”, after Tory backbenchers tried to claim the SNP didn’t have a mandate for indyref2. 

Johnson has since stood by his pre-election position, saying the focus should be on the recovery from Covid-19 and not on another independence referendum.

Speaking on Times Radio, Brown claimed Johnson's lasting legacy would be losing Scotland if the country becomes independent, adding he believes the PM does not "understand" the union.

The National:

He said: "The problem for Boris Johnson is, I think he had one sentence in his speech yesterday, the Queen's Speech, about the union itself.

"I don't think he's thought about it, I don't think he understands it, I think he's got to start beginning to understand it.

"He's a historian, he must remember that Lord North was the prime minister who lost America and that's all he's remembered for, if Boris Johnson becomes the Prime Minister who loses Scotland and sees the end of the United Kingdom, that's all he will be remembered for.

"We need to give some attention to this issue, and we need to do it pretty urgently."

READ MORE: Tories admit there's an indyref2 mandate, says ex spin chief

Brown has previously criticised the UK Government's “muscular unionism” and plans to finance projects in Scotland through local authorities, as opposed to the Scottish Government.

More people in Scotland embrace their Scottish identity first before their British identity, according to Brown, and he said you can be a "patriotic Scot" while also supporting the Union - but he added the Union should be one where "people are co-operating with each other rather than, as Boris Johnson seems to be doing, putting people at permanent war with each other".

Brown claimed about 40% of people in Scotland are not convinced either of the case for the Union or for independence.

The National:

He called for a permanent forum of all the nations and regions to be set up where issues can be discussed, including the leaders of the devolved administrations and English mayors.

Brown said: "Then we'd get a sense that we were talking about issues that have got to be sorted by all these people working together.

"Bring people in, that would be the first step, but that's only the first step to trying to sort out what is a major problem that I think the United Kingdom now faces."

READ MORE: Greens say confusion over 'fascist front' may have cost them seats

Brown, who left office in 2010, had his new plan to save the Union dismissed by the SNP earlier this week.

He announced his think tank, Our Scottish Future, will become a “campaigning movement” to make the “positive, progressive and patriotic case for Scotland in Britain”.

Depute SNP leader Keith Brown said that the former Prime Minister is the “last person anyone in Scotland should be listening to”.