Scotland's governing Scottish National Party has been dealt a blow by figures showing it is running a deficit that is twice the size of that for the UK overall.
According to the latest official estimates from Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers), the Holyrood government spent £14.9bn more than it took in tax revenues in the 2014/15 tax year. This equates to a budget deficit of 9.7 per cent, which The Scotsman notes is almost twice the 4.7 per cent for the UK as a whole for the same financial year.
Public spending north of the border was £68.4bn, or 9.3 per cent of the UK total; spending per head was £12,800, or £1,400 more than in the wider UK. Total revenue raised was £53.4bn, 8.2 per cent the UK whole and a fall of £607m from the previous year.
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As the UK-wide numbers also include Scotland, the disparity to some areas of England and Wales will be starker still.
Prime Minister David Cameron claimed the figures proved Scottish independence would have resulted in tax rises for the country. "We can see that Scotland would face a £15bn gap if it were outside the United Kingdom," he said in the Commons. "I dread to think what taxation would have to be levied not just on whisky, but on petrol, work, incomes and homes."
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the deficit would have "forced an independent government in Edinburgh to make spending cuts five times greater than those recently imposed by the Conservative Chancellor, George Osborne", according to The Guardian.
During the debates on independence ahead of the 2014 referendum, the SNP used Gers figures to show Scots contributed more per head than the wider UK average. This had been the case for 35 years, says Magnus Gardham in The Herald, but was based on offshore oil revenues that are now slumping along with a crash in the oil price.
"Until the SNP comes up with a clear, compelling plan for improving the state of the country's finances, it's hard to see support for independence rising to a level that would guarantee victory in a second referendum," he added.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured above) argued the figures do not paint an accurate picture of what an independent Scotland's finances would have looked like, as full autonomy would have enabled it to take more action to boost its broader economy. She also pointed to figures showing tax revenue growth of 3.2 per cent last year, although this was still behind the wider UK average.
