Indy by the back door

Salmond sets out his price for backing Labour after election

ALEX Salmond has i ssued an extraordinary demand for independence ‘ by the back door’ that would see Holyrood seize full control of taxes, the state pension and plummeting oil revenues.

The defeated former First Minister outlined his high price for propping up Ed Miliband in Downing Street if there is another hung parliament.

Handing Scotland what he called ‘home rule’ would end the Barnett Formula that dictates the size of the Scottish Government’s budget and would all but end the Union Scots last year voted to save.

It would also make vital services in Scotland such as the NHS reliant on revenue from remaining North Sea oil reserves. Today’s oil price of around $50 a barrel compares to an SNP estimate of $113, exposing an independent Scottish Treasury to a black hole of nearly £19billion over three years from next year if the price remains at its low level.

Last night, a spokesman for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she ‘supports’ Mr Salmond’s comments, which were made in an interview with the Press and Journal and The Courier.

The former SNP leader described ‘home rule’ as control over every policy issue except defence and foreign affairs – a set-up more commonly known as devo max.

He claimed this was promised to Scotland through ‘The Vow’, a pledge from David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg made shortly before the referendum as panic swept through Westminster.

In fact, the short document only referred to ‘permanent and extensive new powers’ with an agreed timetable. This has been honoured via the Smith Commis-

‘He misled people of Scotland’

sion, which proposed devolving income tax, a share of VAT revenues and new welfare powers.

Mr Salmond, who is bidding to return to Westminster as MP for the North-east constituency of Gordon, hopes to be ‘kingmaker’ in a hung parliament, extracting a deal from Mr Miliband in return for SNP support in the Commons. He said Nationalist MPs would not demand the right to hold another referendum but would insist on ‘control of all domestic affairs and taxation’.

He said: ‘This Westminster election is about delivering to Scotland what was promised in the referendum.’

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘People rejected independence last year when the oil price was stable. For Mr Salmond now to back this plan with the oil price tipping below $50 is economic madness. It would saddle Scotland with a £18.6billion black hole.’

In his interview, Mr Salmond claimed The Vow was ‘decisive’, adding: ‘It was designed for the 10 per cent of people who were moving to Yes – the swing voters – who could be persuaded that they could still get progress for Scotland without voting Yes.’

Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran said: ‘We now know for sure that the SNP’s policy at the General Election is to end UK pensions, end the Barnett Formula and to devolve all oil revenues to the Scottish parliament.

‘This isn’t what people across Scotland want and it would make us worse off at a time when the oil price is plummeting.

‘During the referendum campaign, Alex Salmond claimed that oil revenues could pay for Scotland’s public services. That clearly is not true and he misled the people of Scotland.’