FM: £1.6bn Brexit hit on public services
THE First Minister will use a speech in London today to attack Labour and the Tories over Brexit.
Humza Yousaf will address an event at the London School of Economics, where he is expected to claim spending on Scotland’s public services would be
£1.6 billion higher if the UK was still in the EU.
Scottish independence, he will say, would result in a return to the European Union for Scotland and an increase in living standards.
He is expected to say: “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.
“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
Northern Isles could become like the mining communities of the 1980s,”
SNP candidate Glen Reynolds wrote of the subject in this week’s Sunday National.
“Our job is to give Scotland a vision of what a just transition will look like, to give hope, to inspire, and to provide a credible roadmap.
“That is why I will be listening very carefully to the Talking Scotland podcast with Aberdeenshire councillor Fatima Joji and Stephen Flynn MP discussing all things energy, especially the just transition.”
Join us at 1.30pm on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube for this important conversation. stay out of both the EU and the huge European single market.”
Yousaf is also expected to quote research from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.
“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 could have been £1.6bn higher than it is today.
“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.”