Dumbarton constituency MSP, Jackie Baillie, has branded the SNP’s bid for an independent Scotland, as austerity on stilts as new figures reveal that a family of four would end up £4,676 worse off.

The SNP’s deputy leader, Keith Brown, has committed the nationalists to more than halving Scotland’s fiscal deficit within three years, a reduction steeper and deeper than the cuts pursued by George Osborne whilst he was Tory Chancellor.

The Scottish Government’s ‘Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland’ report found that the country had a deficit of £12.43billion in the last financial year. In order to meet Keith Brown’s ambition to halve the deficit within less than 36 months, cuts to spending of £1,169 would be required for every person in Scotland, meaning a family of four would be £4,676 worse off.

Jackie said:

“The SNP deputy leader’s ambition to cut Scotland’s deficit in half within three years will see families across the country thousands of pounds worse off in an independent Scotland.

“Reducing a deficit of this scale within that time period would require drastic cuts to frontline services, including the closure of schools and hospitals up and down Scotland.

“It is quite clear, independence would mean turbo-charged austerity and economic uncertainty under the SNP’s plan to ditch the pound for a separate currency.”