Public spending would have to be “butchered” if Scotland wanted to rejoin the EU as an independent nation, a senior Lib Dem has said.
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, speaking at a fringe event at his party’s conference in Bournemouth, said there would need to be “austerity on steroids” in order to meet the EU’s demand for applying member states to have a deficit no higher than 3%.
In the Scottish Government’s annual report on the state of its finances, Scotland currently has a 7% deficit, more than six times the equivalent figure for the UK.
Mr Hamilton, who is the party’s health spokesman at Holyrood, said: “Even to get to the races to be considered for European Union membership, Scotland would have to slash and butcher public spending. It would be austerity on steroids.”
Mr Hamilton said he would “never support Scottish independence”, but did admit the SNP had a “compelling” argument.
He said: “Nicola Sturgeon wants to persuade remainers who voted no in 2014 that independence is the right road back into the EU and that is compelling, but it is fundamentally flawed.”
Senior Lib Dem says SNP would have to ‘butcher’ public spending in an independent Scotland
