Brown attacks Yes camp over currency ‘con’

Gordon Brown has claimed Scotland would be left without a say in setting inflation targets and interest rates if voters back independence.

The former PM said it was “not possible” for an independent Scotland to join the board of the Bank of England which sets the rates.

In an interview with The Sunday Post, Mr Brown said the SNP was “conning” voters with its pitch to share the pound in a currency union with what remains of the UK.

The former Chancellor said the plan was a tactical move as the Nationalists “want to have a separate Scottish currency but are afraid to put that to the Scottish people”.

Mr Brown also claimed there was a £3.3 billion black hole in the SNP’s separation blueprint which would require a 10p rise in taxes, and paying into the EU would cost an independent Scotland £500 million a year in extra contributions if it did not have the same deal as the UK.

He said: “I think they [the SNP] have looked at the opinion polls and found people were against the Euro and the Scottish pound, so they did this for purely tactical reasons.

“It is cynical to propose a currency where you deliberately take Scots away from the right to have representation.

“Nicola Sturgeon says they’d get members on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee it is not possible.

“They say the Bank of England will invite us to have all these Scottish members on the committee, they say England will concede this and that. I think they are conning us.

“They want a separate Scottish currency but are afraid to put that to the Scottish people.

“They may even want to join the Euro but are afraid to argue their case honestly so give us this half-baked solution where decisions about the Scottish economy will be made in the rest of the UK.”

SNP Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie MP said: “The majority of people in Scotland and in the rest of the UK support a sterling area after independence, and even the head of the No campaign, Alistair Darling, said it would be ‘desirable’ and ‘logical’.

“Detailed arrangements for a sterling area were recommended by the Fiscal Commission.”