Jan 2021. Gordon Brown on the State of the Union

The prime minister must reform the union or risk the UK becoming a "failed state", according to former prime minister Gordon Brown. Mr Brown said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should set up a commission on democracy to review how the UK is governed. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Brown said: "The choice is now between a reformed state and a failed state." He added: "The commission will discover that the United Kingdom urgently needs a forum of the nations and regions that brings them and Boris Johnson together on a regular basis. "No country can have national integration without political inclusion, and the commission might start by learning from the experience of countries like Australia, Canada, Germany and America where, partly because of British influence in times past, second chambers are senates of their regions, and minorities who can easily be outvoted are guaranteed a stronger voice."