Scottish First Minister Ms Sturgeon is calling for a second independence referendum in the hope Scotland might be able to be an independent state within the European Union. However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been rejecting the repeated requests from the leader of the Scottish National Party, as Scotland had an independence referendum only six years ago in 2014. Forty-five percent of the Scottish electorate voted for independence, meaning the SNP lost the vote.

Even Ms Sturgeon’s party claimed the vote was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to vote for Scottish sovereignty, but it now claims Brexit has altered the UK and the electorate deserve a second say.

Despite losing in the 2014 referendum, the party has maintained its majority in the Scottish Parliament since 2007.

Yet, the Scottish Sun reported two weeks ago that Scotland has slipped in the rankings since the SNP took over the Scottish Parliament and is “now on par with Slovenia”.

According to the Social and Economic Wellbeing study, Scotland has fallen from 16th to joint 21st in the years since 2006.

The rankings – revealed by Scottish Trends think-tank – showed Wales was the only othe country to see such a large drop in its position.

England, on the other hand, sits at no.12 in the rankings, with the UK as a whole ranking at no.15.

Switzerland was first on the list followed by Norway and Japan.

The report claimed Scotland’s slump was due to “a decline in its education and income performance” associated with the oil slump.

It added Scotland “underperformed” in the years since the 1999 devolution, when the Scottish Parliament was set up.

The study added that the Scottish administration was not being help to account, and there is “too little scrutiny”.

It explained: “The policy development and evolution landscape is very weak.

“For example, few think tanks exist and those that do are mostly poorly funded by either the public or private sectors.

“Outside of the SNP, Scotland’s political parties are either small operations or effectively branch operations of UK parties and in both cases poorly funded.

“This has inhibited the development of alternative policy ideas and led to a lack of political competition.”

The SNP has dominated the Scottish Parliament since 2007. In recent years it has come under fire for its poor domestic policies such as education.

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Additionally, its deficit is thought to be the highest in Europe and may pose as large obstacle to prevent the nation entering the EU as an independent state.

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said: “Yet again Scotland is plummeting down another league table thanks to the ineffective policies of the SNP.”

Yet the spokesperson for Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said it was because Scotland is still tied to the UK.

They claimed: “People will look at this table –where four out of the top five countries are independent European nations with similar populations to Scotland – and wonder why a country as resource-rich as Scotland could not emulate them if independent.”

This echoed the ‘Yes’ campaign for Scottish independence back in 2014. It launched a series of billboards which asked: “What would you say to living in one of the world’s wealthiest nations?”

This question was based on a league table which put Scotland 14th in world rankings of GDP per person – ahead of France, China and the UK – although its data was built off the position of Scotland as it currently stands within the set-up of the UK.

According to the BBC back in 2014, this is not an entirely concrete figure.

The BBC revealed “much would depend on the negotiations after the referendum, and the investment decisions of big companies”, as well as the currency an independent Scotland used.

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