Scottish-UK trade worth FOUR times our EU deals

NICOLA Sturgeon’s attempt to use Brexit to boost support for independence suffered a major blow yesterday as new figures revealed exports to the rest of the UK are worth four times as much as its trade with Europe.

The SNP leader has repeatedly threatened to call an independence referendum if the UK Government fails to keep Scotland in the European single market.

But Scottish Government figures show exports to England, Wales and Northern Ireland generated £49.8billion for the Scottish economy in 2015, while sales to the EU totalled only £12.3billion.

In the past 15 years, exports to the rest of the UK have soared by 74 per cent, compared to a 7.8 per cent rise for the EU over the same period.

Opponents told Miss Sturgeon to accept that ‘Scotland’s essential union’ is the UK and urged her to take an independence referendum off the table.

But Brexit Minister Michael Russell accused UK ministers of lying to Scots and claimed their actions are making independence ‘the key question’ of leaving the EU.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: ‘Our market in the UK is the most important market for Scotland’s busiwith nesses. Our trade with the rest of the UK is worth four times our exports to the EU.

‘Businesses in Scotland sold £37.5billion more in goods and services to their own market in the UK than they did to all 27 EU countries put together.

‘Today’s figures show the UK is the vital Union for Scotland and highlight the importance of maintaining the UK market and preventing any new barriers to doing business across the UK as we leave the EU.’

Mr Mundell added: ‘The Scottish Government’s constant talk of a second independence referendum is creating damaging uncertainty for the Scottish economy.

‘I call on the First Minister to end that uncertainty by taking her threat of another referendum off the table and working us to get the best deal for Scotland and the UK.’

The new figures show that in 2014-15 Scottish exports to the rest of the UK increased by £2.1billion to £49.8billion, while exports to the EU increased by £520million, to £12.3billion.

While exports to both markets rose by 4.4 per cent that year, exports to the rest of the UK have risen by 74 per cent since 2002, compared to 7.8 per cent growth to the EU.

The Scottish Government’s paper on Brexit, published last month, claimed failing to join the single market would ‘damage our economy, social fabric and prospects’.

While it proposed options for the UK staying in the single market or Scotland getting a separate deal to stay in the single market if the UK leaves, it concluded that ‘the best option for Scotland is to be an independent member of the EU’.

Scottish Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘To prioritise the EU market before our Union is absurd. Thousands of jobs depend on our ability to trade within the UK. The Nationalists would put jobs and trade at risk just because they don’t like the UK.’

Miss Sturgeon, who claims the case for independence is becoming ‘clearer by the day’, said it is ‘bogus’ to say an independent Scotland would not trade with the rest of the UK.

But independent experts have insisted an independent Scotland could not have free trade with the UK and the EU.

Last September, Professor Michael Keating, director of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre on Constitutional Change, warned that free trade between Scotland and the rest of the UK would end if one country was in the EU single market and the other was not.

He told Westminster’s Scottish affairs committee: ‘There would be an economic barrier, a barrier to free movement, a barrier to goods and probably services as well.

‘The question would be, is it more important to maintain access to the European single market or to the UK single market? We can’t have both.’

The main growth in exports to the rest of the UK since 2014 was in energy and water, while the rise in EU exports was mainly petroleum and chemical products.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: ‘We must continue to be seen to be a country that is outward-facing and open for business. The EU market is eight times the size of the UK market, which highlights the importance of remaining in the single market. Scotland should not face a choice between exporting to the EU or UK.’ Comment and John MacLeod – Page 16

‘Most important market’ ‘Damaging uncertainty’