THE SNP is facing fresh demands to set out the cost of independence, after figures showed Scotland had run up a financial black hole of more than £40 billion in recent decades.
The UK government released figures stretching back 30 years, as the gloves came off in the row over Scotland’s ability to stand on its own two feet, with a referendum looming in the coming years.
However, the Nationalists insisted the figures showed the nation was in better shape than the UK as a whole, pointing out that the UK had a £715bn debt over the same period.
Scotland had a deficit of £13.4bn in 2009-10, even taking into account its share of North Sea oil and gas revenues. The total deficit stretching back to 1980 is £41bn, according to figures released by the Scotland Office yesterday. This compares with an annual budget of about £30bn for Alex Salmond’s government.
The latest salvos between Holyrood and Westminster came the day after finance secretary John Swinney claimed Scotland could be the world’s sixth-richest nation with control of all its natural resources after independence.
The UK government released figures stretching back 30 years, as the gloves came off in the row over Scotland’s ability to stand on its own two feet, with a referendum looming in the coming years.
However, the Nationalists insisted the figures showed the nation was in better shape than the UK as a whole, pointing out that the UK had a £715bn debt over the same period.
Scotland had a deficit of £13.4bn in 2009-10, even taking into account its share of North Sea oil and gas revenues. The total deficit stretching back to 1980 is £41bn, according to figures released by the Scotland Office yesterday. This compares with an annual budget of about £30bn for Alex Salmond’s government.
The latest salvos between Holyrood and Westminster came the day after finance secretary John Swinney claimed Scotland could be the world’s sixth-richest nation with control of all its natural resources after independence.
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