FORMER prime minister Gordon Brown has urged Yes and No supporters to come together in a new community organisation to fight for social justice.

In one of his final speeches before stepping down as an MP, Mr Brown said people on either side of the independence debate were equally motivated by a desire for change.

Speaking in a church hall in the east end of Glasgow, he said: "I believe we should be putting our energy into a community organisation that can spread across the whole of Scotland," he said.

"Not Yes Scotland, not No Scotland, but Serve Scotland."

Mr Brown argued that the world is becoming more integrated, interconnected, networked and interdependent.

"Fifty years ago John Kennedy, the president of the United States, said: 'We used to have a Declaration of Independence, now we need a declaration of inter-dependence," he said.

"Even the Scottish National Party now recognise that they need to be part of an inter-dependent world."

He defended his decision to introduce tuition fees, insisting free tuition in Scotland is being paid for at the expense of poorer student grants and college funding.

Mr Brown was accused of "encumbering" young people with fees by a local high school student following his speech.

The pupil, from St Mungo's Academy, said: "You were the chancellor of the exchequer that introduced tuition fees, so how can you speak of empowering future generations when you introduced legislation which has encumbered future generations?"

Mr Brown said: "When we introduced tuition fees, and I had my own views on this which I won't go into this evening, they were at £3,000.

"In 2007 we also added protection for poorer students around the maintenance costs that they had, and that is why Ed Miliband is determined that he can get tuition fees down as low as possible as he announced in his policy last week.

"I never argued for £9,000, I've never voted for it, I've never supported it, but we introduced tuition fees at £3,000.

"There is a view, and I think we have got to accept that this is an important view, is that the costs of higher education if everybody is going to get the chance - 50% in future years get the chance of higher education - have got to be shared between the different groups.

"But what I can't agree with is that you introduce free tuition, which is what has happened in Scotland, and then you cut the grants for poorer students."

In an earlier draft of the speech circulated in advance, Mr Brown paraphrased Kennedy's 1961 inauguration address to urge Labour to ask "not what Scotland can do for Labour, but what Labour can do for Scotland".

He attacked the SNP for focusing on "the minutiae of Westminster insider politics like confidence and supply deals" with Labour ahead of the general election, rather than "the big issues that matter such as ending poverty, unemployment, inequality and injustice in Scotland".

Mr Brown refused to be drawn into the debate sparked by Labour peer Lord Moonie, who said a Labour coalition with the Tories "would be better than one with the SNP", and Labour MP Gisela Stuart who said the party should not dismiss the possibility of a "grand coalition" with the Tories.

Mr Brown said: "I am not standing in the next term of parliament and I am not fighting the next general election so I am not going to get drawn into this business.

"I really think it is for other people to get into these conversations about what they do."

Mr Brown also said his vision of "home rule" for Scotland is similar to the principles of Labour's founders in Scotland.

"My view is that they would have come to a policy that was very similar to the one that we have now," he said.

"The maximum of autonomy where it is necessary to make your own decisions on matters where it can be done within Scotland, but sharing where it is also necessary to the benefit of the people of Scotland."