SNP votes to ditch the pound and adopt new currency for Scotland

NICOLA Sturgeon would axe the pound if Scotland votes to become independent, she declared yesterday.

Delegates at the party’s spring conference voted in favour of axing the Pound “as soon as possible” after an independence win — in a U-turn from the 2014 policy of a “sterling union” with the UK.

But the First Minister was warned that the plan would backfire and could cost them votes in another referendum.

Former SNP MP and economist George Kerevan warned that members would have to “sell the plan on doorsteps” — and slated the “vague” proposal to keep sterling unofficially for an unknown period.

Mr Kerevan told a packed party conference in Edinburgh at the EICC: “Scottish voters are canny — and they are going to ask you this question, ‘OK SNP, you have voted to have your own Scottish currency, when are you going to introduce it?’

“Then you’ll get your six tests out and you will say, ‘When we’ve got through all of these.’

“And they will not be convinced. The problem is a practical, not political, one. If you want to have a currency then you are going to have to tell them when.

“Leaving the door open will lose votes, not gain them.”

The move follows a Survation poll which revealed three quarters of Scots want to keep the Pound — with just 12 per cent vying for a new currency.

But Ms Sturgeon insisted that Scotland has “what it takes to become a prosperous, independent nation” – and she promised a new economic plan to sway voters over.

The First Minister has vowed to press ahead with another divisive independence referendum after Brexit, even though most Scots still don’t want it.

The party ultimately backed the plan — complete with the six tests — but only after tweaking the leadership’s policy to urge Ms Sturgeon to fast-track the switch as soon as possible.

In the defeat for party chiefs, members voted 781 to 729 to delete a clause from the overall plan which said a final decision on the currency should be taken by Holyrood “by the end of the first term of an independent parliament”.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay also hailed the outcome. He told the conference: “We are at a defining moment, where the case for independence has never been stronger and we are also winning the economic argument.

“The plan is a crystal-clear economic case to take the nation. It’s a plan that reassures, inspires and offers optimism in and for Scotland.”

In yesterday’s heated two-hour debate, Mr Kerevan claimed an indy Scotland wouldn’t be able to borrow and invest on the scale required to be economically successful until it controlled currency.

Academic Dr Tim Rideout also warned Scotland would have “no lender of last resort” until it had a new central bank and currency.

He added: “We would not have real independence, we would have risk. And EU rules mean that if you don’t have your own currency, you can’t rejoin the EU.”

Tory Murdo Fraser said: “What this shows is they have to convince Scotland and the other half of their party.”

Anti-indy Scotland in Union chief Pamela Nash blasted: “This will be deeply unpopular with the overwhelming majority of Scotland”.

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