As the pound fell to a record low on Monday on the back of Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-budget’, the pings on SNP MPs and MSPs private WhatsApp groups must have ballooned in line with Gilt yields. There were many aspects to consider: the challenge of responding to the 45 per cent rate of income tax being scrapped and cuts to stamp duty, and how this new tax competition will impact Scotland’s budget; the impact on cost-of-living challenges; international concerns that the volatility induced in financial markets could destabilise the global economy. All too predictably, the messaging from senior SNPers focused on this being yet another reason for Scotland to exit the UK.
On Monday, SNP Commons leader Ian Blackford tweeted:
‘All of the economic arguments of the better together campaign in 2014 for Scotland staying in the UK have been dismantled and now blown apart by this UK Govt. Brexit has been a disaster now they have destroyed any financial credibility they had.
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