Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has said Alex Salmond is running out of time to set out his “plan B” on what currency an independent Scotland will use.
But Alex Salmond has insisted Westminster will agree to a currency union for fear of being saddled with the complete UK debt.
Speaking at a dinner in Edinburgh last night, Mr Rennie highlighted the results of a new survey showing an increasing number of businesses are positive about remaining in the UK and Europe.
The latest FT-ICSA Boardroom Bellwether, which surveys FTSE 350 company secretaries across the UK, showed that 23% felt that a Yes vote could significantly affect their business, an increase of 10 percentage points from the previous year.
Those who felt it would have no significant impact declined by 14 points. Fifty four percent of those surveyed also felt that UK membership of the EU had a positive impact on their business, an increase by a quarter from the previous year.
Mr Rennie told the dinner the previous night’s TV debate between the first minister and Better Together leader Alistair Darling will be remembered for one thing: the first minister “Alex Salmond’s persistent refusal to tell us his plan B on currency”.
“He continued to tell people that an independent Scotland would leave the UK but keep all the benefits of a joint bank account,” he said.
“After two years of behaving like a stroppy teenager, refusing to admit he is wrong, it is clear that the nationalists have no plan to change this approach.”
Earlier in the day, Mr Salmond told a Business for Scotland conference that using the pound the same way Panama uses the dollar would be “attractive” but “ain’t going to happen”.
He insisted Westminster would agree to a currency union because if not Scotland could walk away from its share of the national debt.
“No UK Chancellor would allow himself to be in a position where an independent Scotland gets away scot free without the debt,” he said.
“We will take our share of assets in return for our share of the liabilities.”