A SCOTS business group has criticised the unionist Scottish Business UK (SBUK) for a “disingenuous” report suggesting Glasgow would benefit from staying in the UK.
Business for Scotland (BfS) CEO Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp said the figures in yesterday’s report “cannot be taken seriously”.
He said: “They have used an economic model that SBUK itself admits, in the methodology section of the same report, that it does not believe is likely.
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“In their words, the analysis ‘uses the worst case scenario of the UK leaving the EU without a deal, and then the SNP’s preferred scenario of Scotland re-joining the EU customs union and single market, to assess the net benefits to Scotland of staying part of the UK’.
“Both of those scenarios are things Unionists normally say won’t happen and in a footnote, the report states ‘not that SBUK agrees that this is the most likely outcome’.”
MacIntyre-Kemp said the reality was that SBUK wanted to distract from the forecast that Glasgow would suffer a 1.3% reduction in gross value added (GVA) under a soft Brexit scenario.
If there were to be a hard Brexit, he said the fall in GVA would be 2.4%.
MacIntyre-Kemp added: “The thriving finance and exporting sectors highlighted in this report are actually those most at risk from the dysfunctional, distant and delusional approach to Brexit by Westminster government.”
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