Senior UK Government officials were at odds with each other yesterday over whether or not they were making contingency plans for a Yes vote.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman told journalists he was “very clear” that no such preparations were being made.
However, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, the permanent secretary to the Treasury, said that Westminster “may have made contingency plans about contingency plans”.
Responding to the latest poll showing a rise in support for independence, a Downing Street spokesman dismissed suggestions that failing to make plans for a Yes vote showed complacency, insisting the government should focus its energy on pushing the case for the No campaign.
He added: “I’m very clear that there are no contingency plans.”
But Sir Nicholas, appearing in front of the Treasury select committee, said: “I think it’s fair to say there are plans and plans.
“We may have made contingency plans about contingency plans by which I mean if Scotland were to vote for independence by the early hours of the morning, assuming we know by the early hours of the morning, we will have a team in place which will be tasked with dealing with this issue.
“I think the Governor of the Bank of England is on record as having told this committee that he has some contingency plans that he was not prepared to share them with you. I am confident that we’ll be ready to go.”
He added: “In a sense there are two issues. There is not a huge amount of point speculating about this but there will inevitably be short term financial issues which may or may not have market implications.
“Longer term this will be a long and tortuous negotiation about assets and liabilities but this is all for the future at this stage. We have no plans.”