I’m no currency expert says SNP minister ...for the economy
AS the minister responsible for Scotland’s economy, you would expect him to have a handle on the pennies and the pounds.
But the SNP’s Keith Brown admitted yesterday that he did not have a clue how long the pound would be used after independence, because he was ‘not a currency expert’.
Opponents jumped on the admission and described his comments as ‘worrying’.
The Economy Secretary claimed a separate Scottish currency could be introduced within a decade if Scotland becomes independent.
But when questioned about whether the Scottish national investment bank being set up by the Government would use sterling over the next ten to 15 years, Mr Brown said he could not answer because he lacked the expertise.
His comments came ahead of an SNP report on the economics of independence, which is expected to back a separate currency, being published this week.
During a Holyrood committee meeting yesterday, Scottish Conservative MSP Dean Lockhart asked Mr Brown to confirm whether the national investment bank would use sterling over the next ten to 15 years.
Mr Brown suggested it would to begin with but said he was unable to predict future changes.
He said: ‘I think that would be the person that’s got the job of trying to establish certainty going forward to a 15-year period – nobody else can do that.
‘Who knows what changes are going to happen over that time? That’s the currency they’re going to work in, sure, when they’re started, but beyond that who can say what currency changes are going to make? I certainly can’t – I’m not a currency expert.’
Mr Lockhart called the remarks ‘worrying’.
He said: ‘This is extraordinary stuff. The Scottish national investment bank has been promoted by the SNP to provide long-term stable funding for the Scottish economy. However, even before the bank has been launched, the SNP’s obsession with independence has raised massive question marks over its future viability.
‘If the man in charge of the economy can’t tell us what currency the bank will use in the future, what chance will it have to provide the stability that the Scottish economy so badly needs?
‘No one will be surprised to hear Keith Brown’s admission that he’s not a currency expert.’
Transport Minister Humza Yousaf previously admitted he was not a ‘transport expert’ when facing detailed questions in a Holyrood committee, while Finance Secretary Derek Mackay famously confessed that he did not know what the Laffer Curve was when questioned on his proposed tax rises.
Mr Brown’s admission came as the Bank of England governor told MPs it would be economically possible for an independent Scotland to have a currency union with the rest of the UK.
Mark Carney said it would be for others to decide whether it was politically desirable, but said shared sovereignty is ‘highly desirable for an effective currency union’.
He told the treasury committee he believed an effective currency union would include ‘an element of fiscal union’ as well as ‘having a form of financial market union, banking union, capital market union’.
Former First Minister Alex Salmond’s insistence that an independent Scotland would be part of a currency union was a major flashpoint during the 2014 referendum campaign.
He claimed that Westminster would have been forced to respect the ‘sovereign will’ of the Scottish people to keep the pound despite it becoming the parliament of a different country if there was a Yes vote.
But the UK Government ruled out a currency union, arguing it would not have been in the economic interests of the rest of Britain.
Comment – Page 16
‘No one will be surprised’