NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to apologise after official data showed a chasm between what voters were promised in year one of independence and the true state of the economy.

The First Minister came under attack from all the Unionist parties at Holyrood after the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures were published.

They showed the SNP’s White Paper over-estimated the health of the country’s finances by £7.8bn to £10.6bn in what would have been the first year of independence after a Yes vote.

The White Paper, which Ms Sturgeon launched alongside then First Minister Alex Salmond, forecast a deficit of £2.7bn to £5.5bn, a manageable 1.6 to 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2016/17.

However GERS reported the actual deficit was £13.3bn, or 8.3 per cent of GDP.

The difference was due to the collapse in the oil price after the referendum.

Opposition parties said the funding gap would have meant brutal cuts to public services and tax hikes if there had been a Yes vote in 2014.

The Fraser of Allander Institute economic think tank said the data showed an autonomous Scotland would be forced to meet its financial challenges “sooner rather than later”.

Scotland’s deficit, although improved on 2015/16, was also the worst relative to the UK’s since records began in 1998/99, more than three times the UK’s 2.4 per cent of GDP.

Scotland’s deficit has stayed relatively static while the UK’s has fallen in recent years.

The Scottish Tories also highlighted a record “Union dividend” of £1750 per person last year.

Total public spending in Scotland was £1437 more per head than in the rest of the UK, while tax revenue per head in Scotland was £312 less than in the UK.

The difference of £1749 was £150 more than in 2015/16, and the biggest since devolution.

Six years ago Scots were net contributors to the the Exchequer, at £200 per head.

Ms Sturgeon said the White Paper pre-dated the “significant shock” of the oil price slump, and fiercely rejected a suggestion the case for independence was a “con”.

She said: “The figures we put forward were reliable at the time. Circumstances changed.

“We put forward, as well always do, the best available information we have at the time, but nobody, absolutely nobody, foresaw the decline in the oil price.”

She said Scotland’s economy faced “challenges” but was fundamentally strong.

She accepted the GERS figures, but stressed they only reflected the “current constitutional arrangements”, not an independent country with full economic powers.

She said: “The lower oil price had an impact on North Sea revenues and the wider economy last year. It is encouraging to see an improvement in the overall fiscal balance and that onshore revenues grew at their fastest rate in nearly twenty years.

“However, our long-term economic success is now threatened by Brexit, which risks reducing household incomes, employment and funding for public services. That is why we continue to press for the Scottish Government to have a direct role in Brexit negotiations.”

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: “These figures confirm the facts - Scotland is better off as part of the United Kingdom. All of us last year received a Union dividend of £1750 per head.

“These figures also confirm just how wrong the SNP got it during the referendum campaign.

“In 2014, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon looked Scottish families in the eye and insisted we’d be better off. She should have the humility to accept where she got it wrong.”

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said the figures were a “cause for concern” and showed there was “still much to be done to improve Scotland’s economy”.

He said: “They also highlight the value of pooling and sharing resources around the UK.”

Pamela Nash, chief executive of the anti-independence Scotland in Union campaign, said: “The fake-onomics used in the referendum to make the case for independence have been exposed by reality. The forecasts in the White Paper were out by billions.

“Whether this was incompetence or deception, the people of Scotland deserve an apology.

“If we had listened to Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, we would be facing deep cuts and sharp tax rises. For the First Minister to still be asking Scots to risk the economic and social benefits of being part of the UK for independence… is reckless in the extreme.”

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “These figures prove once and for all that the SNP sold false hope to the poorest people in Scotland.

“Scotland’s own accounts show that the first year of an independent Scotland would have meant unprecedented levels of austerity."

“These cuts would not only have been the largest ever felt by Scottish public services like schools and hospitals, the Nationalists’ plan would have taken a sledgehammer to the welfare state as we know it.

“Nicola Sturgeon knew the sums didn’t add up. But she offered false hope. Thousands of Scots voted Yes on the basis of a falsehood the SNP knowingly sold them.”

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “The Scottish Government must commit to provide a formal written explanation to show why its taxpayer-funded independence White Paper was so hopelessly wrong on oil revenues.

“Tens of thousands of people were given copies of the White Paper. The Scottish Government owes each of them an explanation for the gross error in the forecast.”