SNP misses export target by £27 billion

NICOLA Sturgeon was criticised yesterday over her government’s failure to hit a crucial economic target.

The First Minister was accused of overseeing a ‘litany of failure’ in charge of the economy.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson revealed the Nationalists fell £27billion short of a key goal to increase exports by 50 per cent.

She also raised doubts over the Scottish Government’s ability to deliver a Scottish national investment bank (SNIB), as it first announced the move nine years ago but failed to deliver it.

In 2010, the Government set a target to increase exports by half by 2017. That year, exports were £68.9billion but only grew to £75.5billion by last year, £27.7billion under the growth target.

Miss Davidson said: ‘After ten years in power and nine years after the Scottish Government proposed an investment bank, all those reannouncements have led nowhere.

‘The SNP told us in 2010 it would increase exports by 50 per cent, but it failed to do so. Its own figures show it is running short by the small matter of £27billion.

‘That is the price of an SNP that is keen to get the headlines for launches and relaunches but forgets to even start to build the actual bank until nine years later.

‘After such a litany of failure, why should we believe yesterday’s announcement should be any different?’

The SNIB is the SNP’s flagship initiative for reviving the economy and it has earmarked £500million of funding over the next three years which the bank will be able to lend.

At First Minister’s Questions Miss Sturgeon said: ‘People have recognised the potential for an investment bank of this nature to be truly transformational. I hope that will get the support of everybody in the chamber.’

The Tories submitted a Freedom of Information request about the investment bank to the First Minister’s office – but Miss Davidson said officials had written back ‘asking which one we were talking about’.

She said: ‘We replied, “It is the same one that you announced in 2009, re-announced in 2013, that you announced again in 2015 and the one that John Swinney said you shouldn’t do after all in 2016”.

‘First Minister, even your office didn’t seem to know the difference between the Scottish investment bank and the Scottish National Investment Bank, so how can the public?’

Miss Sturgeon insisted the new project was ‘very different’ from the other schemes.