NatWest: We’ll quit Scotland if it votes for independence
New blow for Sturgeon – as poll shows support for breakaway lowest since 2019
BANKING giant NatWest said yesterday it would move its headquarters out of an independent Scotland – delivering a blow to Nicola Sturgeon ahead of next week’s election.
As a poll showed support for leaving the UK at its lowest in more than a year, the NatWest Group, parent company of NatWest, the Royal Bank of Scotland and others, said an independent Scotland would see RBS leave Edinburgh for the first time in its history.
Chief executive Alison Rose said: ‘Our balance sheet would be too big for an independent Scottish economy. And so we would move our registered headquarters to London.’
But she insisted: ‘ We are neutral on the issue of Scottish independence. It’s for the Scottish people to decide.’ Ahead of the 2014 independence referendum the RBS warned it would have to move its registered offices to London in the event of a Yes vote, to protect its credit rating.
Last night Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said the warning ‘starkly confirms the very real consequences for Scottish jobs and business if Nicola Sturgeon ever gets her way’.
And Pamela Nash, boss of the Scotland in Union campaign group, said: ‘Losing the RBS HQ to London would be a hammer blow for the country’s reputation as a place to invest and work.’ But Scottish Government trade minister Ivan
‘Hammer blow to our reputation’
McKee insisted: ‘As the chief executive of the NatWest Group makes clear, Scotland’s future is for the people of Scotland to decide and the bank, which is not talking about moving its operations but simply its registered address, has no view on that.’
RBS was given a £45.8billion bailout by the UK Government in the 2008 financial crisis Taxpayers’ stake in it stands at 59.8 per cent.
It comes as a poll yesterday found only 42 per cent of Scots want to leave the UK, with 49 per cent against and 8 per cent unsure.
With undecideds removed, the Savanta ComRes poll gives a 54-46 split in favour of No, similar to the margin in the 2014 referendum.
It is the worst polling for independence since just before the 2019 general election and the fourth in a row to put support for the union in the lead. If it is reflected in a drop in the SNP vote at Thursday’s Scottish Parliament election, First Minister Miss Sturgeon may not get the majority she needs to push through plans for a fresh referendum.
Meanwhile the Institute for Fiscal Studies said spending cuts or tax rises would likely be needed for an independent Scotland to balance the books.
The think-tank calculated that the fiscal deficit in Scotland – the gap between spending and tax revenues – could be as high as 25 per cent in 2020-21.
But it added: ‘None of this means that Scotland cannot afford to be independent, nor that there aren’t a range of opportunities for better policy to improve performance and better address Scottish needs.’
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross called on pro-union voters to unite behind his party to defeat the SNP.