12,000 English people have signed a petition demanding that the north of the country splits form its southern half (so-called ‘London-centric’) and join Scotland.
The Change.org petition was started during the Scottish Independence Referendum, but has seen a rapid surge in signatures since the landslide Conservative win in last week’s UK General Election. A poll in the Liverpool Echo newspaper found that 73% of Liverpool residents would back their city joining a 'New Scotland'.
UK chancellor George Osborne – the only Tory MP with a northern constituency - is tonight unveiling plans for a degree of devolution for northern cities. The plan would see so called “metro mayors” come into power and those cities then taking control of spending on certain issues, such as transport.
Mr Osborne has tonight said: “"The old model of trying to run everything in our country from the centre of London is broken - it's led to an unbalanced economy.
"It's made people feel remote from the decisions that affect their lives. It's not good for our prosperity, or our democracy.
"We will deliver the devolution to Scotland and Wales we promised. But today, I can tell you we will go much further - and deliver radical devolution to the great cities of England."
The proposed new border, moving cities such as Liverpool and Manchester into New Scotland
The election saw a very defined geographical voting patterns, with the UK split into a tricolour – the yellow SNP in Scotland, the red of Labour in the northern England and Tory blue spread across the south.
The petition highlighted this growing sense of isolation and estrangement from the London government, saying: “the needs and challenges of the north cannot be understood by the endless parade of old Etonions lining the front benches of the House of Commons.”
It goes on to say that the north of England must seceded to “regain control over its own destiny.”
The new country would see Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Hull, Leeds and Sheffield forming a new country.
The petition states: “The deliberations in Westminster are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the north of England. The northern cities feel far greater affinity with their Scottish counterparts such as Glasgow and Edinburgh than with the ideologies of the London-centric south.
“We, the people of the north, demand that in the event that Scotland becomes independent the border between England and the New Scotland be drawn along a line that runs between the River Dee and the mouth of The Humber.”
