Edinburgh: British finance minister George Osborne on Thursday warned that Scotland would have to leave the pound if it voted to become independent.
Osborne said there was "no legal reason" why the rest of the United Kingdom would have to share the pound with Scotland if its people opt to break away in a referendum on September 18.
Backing up Osborne`s speech, Britain`s three main political parties joined forces to say that they would not let an independent Scotland retain the pound.
The Scottish government wants Scotland to keep sterling and stay in a currency union with Britain in the event of independence.
But Osborne told an audience in the Scottish capital Edinburgh that it would "not work" and was "not going to happen".
"If Scotland walks away from the UK, it walks away from the UK pound," he said.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond branded it a "concerted bid by a Tory-led Westminster establishment to bully and intimidate".
"People in Scotland will not be fooled by the bluff, bluster and posturing" of the three parties, Salmond said.
In the British government`s strongest intervention in the independence debate so far, Osborne said the pound was "one of the oldest and most successful currencies in the world".
He noted that the Scottish economy was growing faster than those of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
"These hard-fought gains could be easily lost," Osborne said.
"And nothing could be more damaging to economic security here in Scotland than dividing our United Kingdom.
"I want Scotland to keep the pound and the economic security that it brings," he added.
Prime Minister David Cameron took a softer tone in a speech last week, urging all parts of the United Kingdom to persuade their Scottish friends and family to vote against independence.
