Finance Secretary ‘peddling fairy tales about economy’
Critics say Forbes ‘in denial’ as she admits focus on independence
SCOTLAND’S Finance Secretary is ‘in denial’ over the scale of the country’s financial deficit in the event of independence, it was claimed yesterday.
Kate Forbes was accused of peddling ‘economic fairy tales’ about the nation’s future after giving a series of car-crash interviews.
She suggested ministers will ignore priorities such as health and education to host discussions on breaking up the UK.
As the SNP virtual conference began, Miss Forbes said the Scottish Government had an ‘overwhelming mandate’ for another separation vote.
She also suggested Scotland’s natural resources would boost an independent budget, allowing the country to thrive – despite a deficit of more than £36billion.
But last night opponents said she was putting the concerns of Scots to one side in order to pursue another referendum, and dodging questions over the economy.
They also warned that with a soaring deficit an independent Scotland would be forced to hike taxes and make cuts to vital public services.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Miss Forbes said: ‘Independence will always dominate discussions at SNP conferences, as you will imagine, because we believe that Scotland’s future is best served and best delivered in Scotland’s hands – and that means that, ultimately, we believe that the people in Scotland should have a say over their future.’
Her comments came after a Survation poll put independence tenth on a list of the country’s priorities behind health, Covid recovery, education, policing and the economy.
But Miss Forbes claimed the SNP had an ‘overwhelming mandate for another independence referendum’.
Quizzed on the economic case for independence with the SNP abandoning support of further work in the North Sea oil and gas sector, she said the country had ‘great talent, great natural resources and great potential’. Scotland could ‘thrive in the future’ with natural resources such as wave and tidal energy’.
Asked if the economic case for independence was weaker or stronger than when 55 per cent of Scots voted to remain in the UK in 2014, Miss Forbes claimed the ‘starting position has changed’.
She said: ‘You look at the UK deficit this year during Covid. Nobody would have imagined the UK would have one of the highest deficits in Europe. The key, though, is they have the powers to manage that, to investment in economic growth, to ensure they are sustainable.’
According to the Scottish Government’s own figures, the notional deficit in 2020-21 was 22.4 per cent of GDP, compared to the UK’s 14.2 per cent. In the year before the pandemic, the figures were 8.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.
Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron, said: ‘Kate Forbes’s admission that independence is to dominate the SNP conference will have the Scottish people tearing their hair out.
‘The public want the SNP to focus on fixing an NHS in crisis, a declining education system, job security and Scotland’s drugs death shame.’
He also hit out at Miss Forbes’s failure to ‘answer how her party would deal with Scotland’s enormous deficit in the event of independence,’ adding: ‘People deserve to know how she would make the sums add up. Would it be by enormous public spending cuts, eye-watering tax rises or a combination of both?’
Scottish Labour finance spokesman Daniel Johnson described Miss Forbes’s interview as a ‘master class in SNP incompetence’, accusing her of peddling ‘economic fairy tales’. He said: ‘Kate Forbes had no answers on the falling support for independence and no answers over the economic havoc separation would cause. On the day that SNP conference opens, this shows a party out of ideas and focused only on spin and denial.’
‘Master class in incompetence’