Sturgeon banks on new Scottish currency for push to convince No voters
NICOLA Sturgeon will consider plans to ditch the pound and set up a new currency as part of her latest bid to tear Scotland out of the UK.
The SNP leader is understood to have ordered a review of the party’s currency plans for a separate Scotland – one of the biggest issues in the 2014 independence campaign.
She is considering a wide range of options, including a new standalone Scottish currency, pegged to the pound.
In the run-up to the 2014 referendum, then First Minister Alex Salmond faced widespread criticism for insisting that an independent Scotland would continue to use the pound as part of a ‘currency union’ with the rest of the UK – despite George Osborne ruling out any prospect of the UK entering into such a deal.
But Mr Salmond, who remains an influential figure in the SNP and is the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, has now revealed that the policy is under review.
He said: ‘There’s a range of currency options. If you remember the BBC debate against Alistair Darling, I explained what these currency options are and certainly that is an area of policy that I’m quite certain the First Minister is already – has done – some serious thinking about and that will be brought forward.’
Before the EU referendum, SNP home affairs spokesman Joanna Cherry said that the SNP could join the euro if Scotland became independent, depending on the ‘economic conditions at the time’.
She added: ‘We probably wouldn’t want to be tied to the pound if it nosedives after a Brexit.’
Responding to the comments days before the vote, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We will have that discussion if that’s the situation we are in next week.’
Now, after a majority of UK voters backed leaving the European Union, Mr Salmond said options such as a standalone Scottish currency are being considered ahead of a currency union or using the euro.
Asked if an independent Scotland would adopt the euro, the former SNP leader said: ‘I don’t think there’s any prospect of Scotland joining the euro in its current form but there are a range of other options: obviously Sterlingisation is an option, an independent Scottish currency linked to the pound, an independent floating currency.
‘Many countries within Europe have exactly these options and are highly prosperous as a result, so these options are still on the table and I am quite certain Nicola Sturgeon will bring that policy forward.’
However, any plan to adopt a separate Scottish currency could also