... and they were £21bn out about North Sea oil revenue

JOHN Swinney was yesterday accused of ‘bogus’ claims about oil as new figures reveal the North Sea would have generated £21billion less than the SNP estimated in the first two years of independence.

The Deputy First Minister came under fire from both Labour and the Conservatives over the economic case for an independent Scotland as he stood in for Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday.

And new analysis from Labour reveals the SNP’s forecasts for oil revenues were £21billion higher for this year and next year – which would have been the first two years of an independent Scotland – than the amount which will be raised.

Mr Swinney came under fire yesterday for previously claiming that ‘the early years of an independent Scotland are timed to coincide with a massive North Sea oil boom’.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale questioned why he did not ‘tell the truth about oil’. She said: ‘People in Scotland were given false hope by the SNP. They were told that we could build a fairer country only with independence, but we now know beyond all doubt that was just not true.

‘New analysis published by Labour today reveals that the SNP’s estimate for oil revenues in what would have been the first two years of an independent Scotland could be out by as much as £21billion.

‘That would have delivered turbocharged austerity and would have made that fairer nation all but impossible to build.’

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson told Mr Swinney ‘the economic prospectus on which the SNP based its entire case for independence was bogus’.

Miss Davidson also cited comments from SNP economist Andrew Wilson, who said earlier this week that it was wrong to say oil ‘was a bonus and not the basis’ of the SNP’s economic blueprint for an independent Scotland in 201 .

Mr Swinney said: ‘I am not the only person who thought oil was a bonus. In 201 , the Prime Minister came to Aberdeen and said, if Scots voted No in the referendum, there would be a £200billion oil boom bonus for Scotland.

‘I say to Ruth Davidson that, yes, oil is a bonus and it has propped up the UK economy for many years.’