NICOLA Sturgeon has called into question the credibility of Willie Rennie’s ambitions to see a universal basic income introduced to Scotland.

During the STV leaders’ debate, the First Minister said the LibDem chief’s plan relied on the unlikely prospect of persuading Boris Johnson to back his proposals.

In the cross-examination segment of the programme, the SNP leader warned that without independence Scotland lacks the powers necessary to introduce the welfare scheme, which would see every adult in Scotland given a regular payment from the state.

The spat began with a discussion about LibDem ambitions to rejoin the EU.

Sturgeon suggested to Rennie that his party was admitting there’s no hope of that happening any time soon while Scotland remained part of the Union. She put it to the LibDem chief that his party was telling Scots they “just have to accept being dragged out of the EU against their will and there’s nothing they can do about it”.

Rennie insisted his party is committed to rejoining the EU “over time once we persuade people of that”.

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The debate then moved on to universal basic income. The First Minister noted Rennie had “rightly” challenged her in the Scottish Parliament to implement such a scheme as part of the country’s recovery from the pandemic.

Sturgeon explained: “To do that, I would need powers over taxation and social security. Without those powers, how do you think we get to a universal basic income?”

The LibDem leader replied: “We’d persuade the UK Government …”

A disbelieving Sturgeon intervened: “You’d persuade Boris Johnson?”

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Rennie insisted his party would “persuade whoever is there over time”. He added: “I think there was an ideal opportunity at the start of the pandemic to do exactly this, which is why we made the positive case for that happening because we think a universal basic income would be a good thing for the country.”

The incredulous SNP leader got the final word, adding: “The Liberal Democrat position is that to get social justice policies, you have to persuade Boris Johnson?”

SNP, LibDem, Green and Labour candidates for the Holyrood election have all backed proposals to pilot basic income schemes in Scotland.

However, Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville warned last month that Scottish Government feasibility studies have shown the pilot programmes “won't work under devolution or until the UK Government agrees to co-operate”.

The Tory administration has repeatedly faced cross-party calls to introduce the social security measures in response to the pandemic. But in March last year Rishi Sunak said the Government was "not in favour" of the scheme. 

Since then neither the Prime Minister nor the Chancellor have given any indication that their position has changed.