Unionists hit back

A LONG-AWAITED blueprint which claims living standards in Scotland could “equal the best small countries in the world” within a generation of independence has been criticised by Unionist politicians.

The SNP set up the Sustainable Growth Commission in 2016, with Nicola Sturgeon saying its 353-page report showed how the country could “replace the despair of Brexit with optimism about Scotland’s future”.

Recommendations include cutting the country’s deficit from an “anticipated starting point” of 5.9 per cent at the time of leaving the UK to less than 3% – as well as keeping the pound after independence for at least 10 years.

The First Minister said the document shows “Scotland is a wealthy nation with huge resources”.

Ms Sturgeon added: “Despite those enormous strengths, similar-sized nations have performed better over decades – all of them independent but most of them with fewer resources than us.

“The task ahead is to match those nations, creating more jobs and raising living standards, providing a better future for everyone who lives here.”

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard branded the report a “cuts commission” and said it would lead to “a decade of unprecedented austerity and no control over the value of their wages, rent and mortgages”.

He said: “Proposals to cut Scotland’s deficit by almost two-thirds over a decade would result in a level of austerity not even George Osborne attempted. Key arguments around currency and debt simply sum up why leaving the UK would not be in the interests of Scotland. The SNP suggest a separate Scotland would pay the rest of the UK £5 billion a year to hold and service our debt. That is the equivalent of the education and justice budgets.

“On currency, the SNP has outlined a plan which would mean Scotland has less independence, not more.”

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the report was advocating using “the currency of what would then be a foreign country without asking, without their own central bank and without any backstops”. She said: “I’m not entirely sure that is enough for the people of Scotland to want to gamble their mortgage on, their pensions on, their wages on and their future on.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the SNP should not be “compounding the chaos of Brexit with the chaos of independence”.

He added: “Scotland should not jump from the frying pan into the fire. Our Parliament and Government should be focused on positive change, not another divisive referendum.

“Instead we need a positive vision for improving public services and the economy by investing in the talents and skills of people. We should be working towards a high wage, highly skilled economy and ensure everyone can achieve their potential.”

Meanwhile, Left-leaning political economist Professor Richard Murphy said the report’s currency proposals would leave Scotland “enslaved by the pound and tied to the apron strings of London”.

Economist Professor John Mclaren said one of the report’s biggest contributions would be to breathe fresh life into the “abject” debate around Scotland’s economy.

He said it had set out a realistic prospectus for an independent Scotland, despite some sections being “overly optimistic”.