Yesterday, John Swinney mentioned economist Simon Wren Lewis when attacking the UK Government’s plans to cut the deficit ahead of this week’s budget.
But just before the referendum in 2014, the Oxford University professor warned that the SNP were “deceiving” people on the price of independence.
The academic also gave a bleak warning that Scotland would face “more, not less, fiscal austerity under independence”.
Now the finance minister has been accused of double standards after figures released last week revealed the deficit north of the border is almost double the rest of the UK’s.
Scotland’s deficit is 9.7 per cent of GDP, where-as the UK’s is just 4.9 per cent showing that if Scotland had voted Yes in 2014, it would be faced with an extremely bleak financial outlook.
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said:
“John Swinney has obviously not done his homework, citing the same economist who warned the SNP were ‘deceiving people’.
“This is just typical of the SNP - a boomerang attack on the UK Government’s plans and scrambling about to cover up for their own mistakes.
“The UK Government has done a tremendous amount of work in getting the country’s economic problems into order while the SNP are still flagging behind on the Scottish economy’s outlook.
“The bottom line is that, in good times and bad, Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland are better off in one Union, facing global challenges together.
“We look forward to the Chancellor’s announcement and his plans to bring the deficit down.”