ENGLAND and Wales are literally Scotland’s lifeblood, ex-PM Gordon Brown claimed yesterday in an appeal to the nation’s blood and organ donors.

The former Labour leader and Better Together campaigner urged voters yesterday not to jeopardise their health system with a vote for independence. 

He insisted that the swapping of viscera across the border “should leave all of us bursting with pride.”

Around 1,200 organ transplants each year involved a Scottish recipient and a non-Scottish donor, he said, while the past four years had seen Scotland import roughly three times as much blood for transfusions as it exported to the rest of Britain.

But a Scottish government spokeswoman insisted that a “Yes” vote would make no difference.

“NHS Blood and Transplant, which co-ordinates organ donation across the UK, has already confirmed in writing that independence would not lead to any change in these arrangements,” she said.

An NHS For Yes spokesman meanwhile branded Mr Brown’s comments “silly.”