Sturgeon blow: How huge currency problems could destroy SNP’s Scottish independence dream – Express.co.uk

Nicola Sturgeon is pushing for a second independence referendum to take place in 2020 – more than five-and-a-half years after the country unanimously voted to remain in the UK. The SNP leader has argued the party’s gains at last month’s general election mean it now has a mandate to hold Indyref2 this year. Boris Johnson has continued to slap down these demands, highlighting how the SNP had promised the referendum more than five years ago the then had been a “once-in-a-generation event”.

Earlier this month, Ms Sturgeon’s plans for Scottish independence were shamelessly exposed after the country’s financial deficit continued to surge to the point it would fail the European Union membership test.

To be considered for membership to the EU, applicant states are required to have a deficit no higher than three percent.

But the latest GDP quarterly national accounts for Scotland shows the difference between and tax income and public spending had risen from seven percent to 7.2 percent of GDP – seven times more than the rest of the UK.

Political and financial experts have highlighted the difficulties Scotland would now have joining the euro post-independence, as well as adopting a form of the pound and lack of governance over its most important elements.

Eliot Wilson, a former clerk at the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee in the run-up to the independence referendum in 2014, warned all routes would be virtually impossible.

He told Express.co.uk: “One huge problem facing an independent Scotland would be currency.

“The UK Government has indicated that it would not be open to a common currency area with Scotland, so sterling could only be used as a reactive, impotent partner, with interest rates and general fiscal policy being set in London without Scotland’s input.

“One option would be to use the Euro, but accession to the EU could take some years, and there are economic criteria for joining the Euro which Scotland does not currently meet.

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“Scotland could also create its own currency, but backed by what?”

Patrick Sullivan, chief executive and founder of the Parliament Street think tank, warned Scotland continuing to use the British pound as an “independent” currency would be a “very dangerous route” to take.

He claimed Scotland would have no control over its monetary policy, and thus no say over the setting of interest and currency exchange rates.

Mr Sullivan told this website: “Scotland continuing to use the British pound as an “independent” would be a very dangerous route.

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“It would essentially mean that Scotland had no say over its monetary policy, which governs interest rates and currency exchange rates.”

Scottish Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan David Duguid warned Scotland adopting its own “pound” would require the formation of a Central Bank, which would cost “hundreds of millions of pounds”.

Alistair Jones, principal politics lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester, warned a newly-independent Scotland would have to apply for EU membership but lose several of its privileges.

He also warned huge doubts remain over whether Scotland would be able to adopt a form of the pound as its currency post-independence.

Mr Jones said: “Scottish independence, in itself, may not go wrong. The original plan was for Scotland to stay in the EU. This is now a non-starter.

“Thus a newly independent Scotland will apply for EU membership, but will not have any of the opt-outs the UK previously held.”

“There is still the issue of currency. Could Scotland be run with the ‘English’ pound as its’ currency? This was never resolved first time around.”