Nicola Sturgeon facing SNP backlash over currency plans

He said it meant “cuts to services and spending”, could lead to keeping the pound “indefinitely”, and was “completely contrary to the Scotland that people want to build”.

The Commission proposed a decade of tight public spending after a Yes vote to halve Scotland’s deficit, and keeping the pound until six tests were met for any new currency, earning widespread criticism on the left of the Yes movement.

The CIC is now urging activists to stop the SNP leadership’s plan to adopt the Commission as party policy at next month’s conference in Edinburgh.

It wants local branches to rally behind an amendment which would ditch the Commission’s “arbitrary” six tests for moving to a new currency so the switch could happen in the first term of an independent parliament.

The CIC amendment seeks to rewrite a leadership motion on the Commission tabled by Finance Secretary Derek Mackay and SNP depute leader Keith Brown.

Mr Mackay has said publicly he welcomes debate around the Commission, however the SNP leadership is unlikely to be happy at the proposals being linked to cuts, something critics have said all along, but ministers have denied.

READ MORE: Row over SNP's currency plans for an independent Scotland

Mr Kerevan, the MP for East Lothian from 2015 to 2017, and a persistent critic of the Growth Commission, said: “While the motion put to conference is a positive step, it must be amended to ensure powers over currency are taken from Westminster at the nearest opportunity to be used by Scotland in the interests of Scotland.

“We should not continue to chain ourselves to Westminster which has long made decisions contrary to Scotland’s prosperity and will.

“The Growth Commission’s six tests would leave Scotland using the pound indefinitely, result in cuts to services and spending, and allow the market to dictate an independent Scotland’s decisions.

“This is completely contrary to the Scotland that people want to build and we should reject those tests. We need to fund our NHS, our schools, our local authorities, build infrastructure and homes. We need to build the Scotland we want and we should not give that vision up.”

The Commission’s six tests would assess whether Scotland’s economic record was credible and sustainable; whether markets had faith in a new Scottish Central Bank and its ability to issue debt; whether the public and business wanted it; whether Scotland had adequate reserves; whether it would improve trade; and whether Scotland’s economic cycle was “significantly out of phase with that of the rest of the UK” to make it “feasible and desirable”.

Andrew Wilson, the former SNP MSP who authored the Commission, said explaining these tests to voters before a second referendum was an “absolute necessity”.

But Mr Kerevan said: “The views of international markets and corporations should always fall behind that of the people. The sovereign will of the Scottish people and Parliament should be the ones to make decisions on our currency to benefit our economy.

“If certainty and stability is the aim, we should not leave the creation of independent currency to be open ended. Clear and definite plans must be set to establish a independent currency in the first term of the Scottish Parliament to prevent any delay to its creation.”

READ MORE: SNP Commission U-turned on currency, says former MP

The CIC amendment would strike out a key clause in the leadership's motion on currency.

This says: “Conference believes that it should be the policy of an SNP government in an independent Scotland to establish an independent currency; and agrees that the process and precise timescale for doing so should be subject to robust governance and guided by the six tests recommended by the Sustainable Growth Commission.”

READ MORE: Key Sturgeon adviser urges 'softest possible form of Scottish independence'

The CIC proposes replacing this with: “Conference believes that achieving successful higher growth and securing a sustainable fiscal balance in an independent Scotland can only be achieved through the establishment of a separate Scottish currency.

“Conference believes it should be the policy of an SNP government in an independent Scotland to establish a separate Scottish currency within the lifetime of the first, post-independence parliament.

“The pound sterling will remain in use until the currency transition.”

The CIC said this would “remove the requirement to end any fiscal deficit and ensure foreign lenders are satisfied with Scottish tax and spending - both of which would result in cuts”.

An “arbitrary” test on ensuring business stability would be scrapped along with the “paradoxical” test on ensuring there are sufficient reserves of a yet non-existent currency.

There also would be no harmonising between Scotland and England’s economic cycle in an attempt to ensure decisions are made in Scotland’s best interests, the campaign said.

READ MORE: Tom Gordon: SNP’s currency plan may please members, but not voters

CIC spokesperson Rory Steel said: “An independent currency will allow the people of Scotland to exercise their power in an independent Scotland’s economy.

“We need the SNP grassroots to exercise their power now and take the amendment to their branch for approval.”

Labour Finance Spokesperson James Kelly said: “The SNP’s Growth Commission is really a cuts commission,and there is no currency plan the SNP can come up with that doesn’t lead to turbo charged austerity for Scotland. That’s why only Labour in Scotland is standing on an anti-austerity platform offering hope and investment.”

The Scottish Socialist Party last week said it would boycott any cross-party campaign in a second referendum if the Commission becomes SNP policy.

Pamela Nash, chief executive of the anti-independence group Scotland in Union, said: "The SNP’s plan to ditch the pound and put mortgages, pensions and salaries at risk is reckless, and this splinter group now wants to impose the pain on the people of Scotland even earlier.

"The splits within the movement to leave the UK are growing because there is no coherent currency proposal for an independent Scotland, just like Alex Salmond found in 2014. There is simply no better arrangement than the one we currently have as part of the UK.”

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: "This simply demonstrates the splits that run through the SNP from top to bottom.

“The Finance Secretary and the SNP deputy leader have already put forward a motion to create a new Scottish currency, but that clearly isn’t enough for these nationalists.

“Nicola Sturgeon knows that there is no majority for independence, but she will not be able to appease her activists for much longer.

“While the SNP continues to argue over fictional currency, Scots want action on health, education and roads now.”

LibDem spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain said: "In the midst of the Brexit chaos, as we face the very real danger of a no-deal exit, the SNP are focusing on their pursuit of another independence referendum.

“Just like Brexit, there isn’t a crumb of certainty about what you would actually get.

“The SNP really have learned nothing from the past two years of constitutional turmoil. Breaking up is costly and hard to do.”

Mr Brown said: "I welcome any debate on the proposal that I and Derek Mackay and I have put forward. However, I believe it is essential that our proposal to move to a new Scottish currency has to take place at the best possible time for the people and economy of Scotland.

“It is absolutely right that that decision is one for the first sovereign parliament of an independent Scotland to make, after all, the point of independence is to that decisions about Scotland can be taken in Scotland. The tests suggested by the growth commission should be a guide to those decisions.

“The policy I have put forward is one that works and one that can win independence.”