Nicola Sturgeon grilled on independence by Andrew Marr

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Nicola Sturgeon faces First Minister’s Questions today as she urges Scottish people to follow Covid guidance amid fears of the Omicron variant. She has demanded that employers bring back the home working policies implemented at the height of lockdown and warned that new restrictions could be reimposed at a day’s notice. The First Minister has also warned she will carry out daily rather than weekly reviews of Covid rules and was ready to make “difficult” and unpopular decisions. Ms Sturgeon is hoping the recent concerns about Omicron won’t scupper her push for Scottish independence.

Last week, she said: “Next year, COVID permitting, as we emerge from winter into spring, the campaign to persuade a majority of people in Scotland that our future will be more secure as an independent nation will resume in earnest.

“In the course of next year, I will initiate the process necessary to enable a referendum before the end of 2023.”

However, she will also have to grapple with criticism over the economic challenges independence will raise, as Stephen Kerr tells Express.co.uk.

The Tory MSP said: “Independence would be economically devastating for Scotland, over 60 percent of everything we make ends up being sold in the UK.

“Ms Sturgeon would be intent on making a customs border at Berwick or Carlisle. It would be outrageous, it would impoverish Scotland.

“Even their own growth commission, Andrew Wilson is one of their own MSPs, he did a report on the economic impact of independence which was buried by the SNP.”

In February, Mr Wilson warned the Scottish First Minister not to brush over the downsides and “hard work” of independence.

He added that the nationalists had yet to produce “a prospectus that is honest and clear about the transition, timings and trade-offs, as well as positive about its vision”.

In August, Mr Wilson warned an early push to establish a separate Scottish currency if the country were to become independent could lead to it being devalued and risk “capital flight”.

Mr Kerr believes independence could lead to a variety of negative economic consequences, including tax hikes or spending cuts.

He continued: “Mr Wilson’s report admitted there would 10-20 years of real austerity, spending cuts, tax hikes and of massive borrowing.

“We are net beneficiaries of the union. Scotland brings a lot to the union, the Scots bring a lot to the UK. But the UK is also a huge blessing to Scotland.”

Mr Kerr also believes that Ms Sturgeon’s plan of taking an independent Scotland into the EU could be ruined by the country’s economy.

He added: “They are going to set up their own currency? Scotland’s going to join the euro? Really?

“We already have this massive deficit that puts us way outside of anything that would allow them to rejoin the EU.

“That’s the other thing. At least a third of the SNP don’t even want to join the EU, so they’ve got another problem on that score as well.”

The first step for any country wishing to join the EU is to comply with a set of standards broadly set out in the ‘Copenhagen criteria’, which cover stable governance, democracy, protection for human rights, a market economy, and the ability to adhere to the EU’s political and economic aims.

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All new members of the EU are formally required to work towards membership of the euro and to reduce budget deficits to three percent or less as part of the rules set out in the Maastricht Convergence Criteria.

If a member state does not comply with the convergence criteria rules on public deficits, the European Council has the option to enforce policies to reduce the deficit, known as the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

In August, figures released in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) found that the Scottish deficit stands at 22.4 percent.

Spending increased by 21 percent during the year, reflecting the impact of the pandemic, while average public spending per person also rose to £1,828 above the UK average.

A deficit as high as this upon EU entry could result in Brussels making demands to try and stabilise the Scottish economy.

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