Nicola Sturgeon independence dream CRUSHED - Scots could be smashed with £181BN bill.
NICOLA Sturgeon's Scottish independence dreams have been crushed after being warned the country may have to take on eye-watering UK debt of more than £180billion after a successful Indyref2 vote.
By PAUL WITHERS
Sat, Feb 19, 2022
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants a second independence referendum to be put before Scots before the end of 2023, and has also expressed wishes for the country to once more rejoin the European Union. During the Brexit referendum in June 2016, Scotland voted against the UK leaving the EU by a huge margin of 62 percent to 38 percent. The SNP has used this to push the case for Scottish independence, arguing that Britain has been dragged out of the EU "against the will" of the Scottish people
In a further development, the SNP and Scottish Greens revealed they are drawing up a joint Government prospectus on independence that will be put to Scots next year.
But while Brexit has seen the UK pay the EU up to £40billion over several years as part of an agreed divorce deal, Scotland could be hammered with a much higher bill from independence, a leading political expert has warned.
The most recent published figures show UK general Government gross debt was £2.2trillion at the end of the financial year ending March 2021, equivalent to 103.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
This was driven in part by the tens of billions of pounds spent on propping up the UK during the Covid pandemic - a large chunk of which went to Scotland.
Alistair Jones, associate politics professor at De Montfort University in Leicester warned: "If there is a successful move to Scottish independence, it is most likely that Scotland will have to take on part of the UK's burden of debt.
"What is not clear, is how much that would be, or how it could be done.
"There could be an annual payment to help in the servicing of the UK national debt and for that to be in place for an extended number of years.
"This could be something like £10billion per year, but that will depend upon the agreed legacy sum that the Scots would owe, and the length of time of repayment.
"Alternatively, a proportion of the UK national debt could be transferred to Scotland upon gaining independence.
"An example is the splitting of Czechoslovakia, where the debt, liabilities and assets were split 2:1 between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, based around population size.
"If that model was followed, the split would be 11:1 between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
"If UK national debt is around £2trillion, the 11:1 ratio will see the Scots take on around £181 billion." Express.
