POLITICIANS in Stroud have welcomed Scotland’s decision to remain a part of the UK after voters rejected independence in an historic referendum.

Fifty-five per cent of Scots cast their ballots in support of the No campaign on Thursday ensuring the preservation of the 307-year-old union.

And the result, which has since prompted the resignation of the Scottish first minister and head of the nationalist Yes campaign, Alex Salmond, has gone down well with most of the district’s leading political figures.

Both Stroud’s Conservative MP, Neil Carmichael, and Labour’s parliamentary candidate, David Drew, welcomed the outcome, while UKIP’s Caroline Stephens said it was ‘good news for Britain’.

In addition to expressing his delight, Mr Carmichael urged the coalition to now deliver on its promises of greater powers for Scotland.

“I’m very pleased that the No campaign has won and I hope that the claims about further devolution happen,” he said.

“All three parties have effectively said the same thing. There’s some variation but we have all said that Scotland should have more powers.”

Writing in his column in today’s SNJ, Mr Carmichael also calls for greater powers to be devolved to England in light of the Scottish vote.

That appeal was echoed by former MP David Drew, who also believes power needs to be de-centralised away from Westminster, although not in the form of an English Parliament.

“I believe in devolution but it needs to be done not as an English Parliament but as regional autonomy,” he said.

Mr Drew also reserved fierce criticism for the nationalist campaign in Scotland, accusing the Yes movement of being ‘very divisive’ and embodying ‘a degree of anti-Englishness’.

“We were not prepared for Scotland to become a separate country. Independence would not have been helpful for the Scottish or for the rest of the UK so I’m very pleased with the result,” he added.

Reacting to the outcome of the referendum, UKIP’s parliamentary candidate, Caroline Stephens, said: “The Scots voted and had their say and it is good news for Britain.

“I am also now finding that more and more people are talking about a European referendum because of the Scottish vote.”

Green candidate Chris Jockel, whose party was one of the few backing a Yes vote, said: “The Scottish people have led the rest of the UK by example to start talking honestly and urgently about our democracy.

“The centralisation of power, the crude first-past- the-post system, poor voter registration and turnout undermine the very legitimacy of elections and the mandates that follow.

“Power in the UK should be devolved to the lowest practical level, downwards, to the regions and the towns and cities.”