Rivals blast SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon's plans for full fiscal autonomy
NICOLA STURGEON was yesterday accused of “making it up as she goes along” over demands for full fiscal autonomy as the country’s political leaders clashed on live television.
The First Minister faced fierce questioning over plans to devolve all of Scotland’s taxes and spending to Holyrood during a third televised debate in less than a week.
Ms Sturgeon came under pressure from Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, Labour leader Jim Murphy and Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie over how a huge funding gap would be plugged if the country took charge of all financial powers.
Economists at the Institute of Fiscal Studies recently warned that fiscal autonomy – or devo max – would leave the Scottish Government with an additional £7.6billion deficit.
Ms Sturgeon claimed that such doubts amounted to “trying to talk down Scotland”, and claimed that the SNP would be able to plug the gap by using new powers to grow the economy.
But Ms Davidson said that the First Minister was hiding behind a victim complex to disguise her lack of economic credibility.
She said: “I don’t think we can accept Nicola saying, ‘This is Project Fear 2, this is three other parties ganging up on me, ganging up on the Scottish Government and ganging up on Scotland’.
“This (the figure) didn’t come from us.
"You’re right in saying this came from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
"It also came from a group of Scottish-based economists that projected the gap to be bigger.
What’s the magic policy you have that the rest of the world doesn’t have on this issue?
“You can’t say, ‘I want control, I just don’t want it yet’, and then blame us for the fact that your sums don’t add up.”
During the BBC Scotland debate, Mr Murphy also questioned Ms Sturgeon’s strategy for plugging the spending gap.
He added: “As is often the case, Nicola makes a dreadful point in a very reasonable way.
“She’s making this up as she goes along.
"To make this £7.6billion up Scotland would have to grow at twice the rate of the rest of the entire advanced world, so how would you do that, Nicola?
"What’s the magic policy you have that the rest of the world doesn’t have on this issue?”
Fiscal autonomy would mean opting out of the Barnett Formula which currently sets Scotland’s block grant, and gives Scots around £1,200 extra per head compared to the UK average.
But Ms Sturgeon dismissed the fears, saying: “This week we’ve seen the Project Fear that dominated the referendum revived by these three unionist parties, trying to talk down Scotland and assert that we’re not capable of running our own affairs.”
She insisted: “This is a debate about whether Scotland should take more control over our own economic decision-making.
“Do we take proper control over our finances or do we leave ourselves at the mercy of Westminster’s continued cuts?”
