Yousaf to give London speech claiming Brexit costs Scotland £1.6bn

THE first minister will use a speech in London today to attack Labour and the Tories over Brexit.

Humza Yousaf will tell an event at the London School of Economics that spending on Scotland’s public services would be £1.6 billion higher if the UK had remained in the European Union.

He will say independence would enable Scotland to return to the EU and boost living standards.

“A combination of the economic powers that come with independence together with EU membership will be a powerful driver of better living standards and a fairer, stronger Scottish economy,” the first minister is expected to say.

“In Scotland, I believe there is broad public agreement that Brexit has damaged the economy and public services, and that it should be reversed.

“Yet at Westminster there is agreement between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer that the UK should stay out of both the EU and the huge European single market – whatever the cost.”

He will say: “The National Institute for Economic and Social Research suggests that compared to EU membership, the UK economy was 2.5% smaller in 2023 and it expects that figure to rise to 5.7% in little more than 10 years’ time.

“That means £69bn could have been wiped from national income in 2023, equating to £28bn of tax revenue – £2.3bn in terms of Scotland’s population share.

“Around 60% of spending in Scotland is on devolved services. With the same level of borrowing and taxation, that means without Brexit, devolved spending power for our vital public services, such as the NHS, could have been £1.6bn higher.

“In other words, Scotland has suffered an estimated £1.6bn cut that could have been invested in our NHS because of a Brexit that people in Scotland overwhelmingly rejected.”

Scottish Conservative shadow finance and economy secretary Liz Smith said: “The reality is that if economic growth in Scotland had matched that of the rest of the UK, the SNP would have had billions more to spend on public services – and we’d have been spared Shona Robison’s disastrous tax-and-axe Budget.”

Scottish Labour’s Daniel Johnson said: “Years of economic incompetence by the SNP has robbed Scots of opportunity and starved the public purse of funds.

“While the Tories have created economic turmoil across the UK, the SNP has made a bad picture worse.

“If Scotland’s economy had grown at the same pace as the UK as a whole between 2012 and 2021, it would be £8.5bn larger.”

First Minister Humza Yousaf will give speech today.