Responding to the publication of Scottish Government documents marking a renewed push to break up the UK in 2023, Scottish Business UK Chief Executive Struan Stevenson said:
“If it’s yet another national conversation on breaking up the UK that the First Minister wants, then she shouldn’t be surprised if Scottish business ignores her calls.
“The papers published today mark a further desperate attempt to reignite a debate that was soundly lost by the SNP in 2014 and which businesses don’t want repeated now – especially in the teeth of a bumpy pandemic recovery marked by here-and-now pressures like rising inflation and supply chain disruption.
“So many of the points it makes come across as reheats of the long-discredited SNP Growth Commission, explaining why the SNP and Greens prefer other countries to the one businesses actually operate in.
“But for anyone who doesn’t share Scottish ministers’ obsession with talking down our main trading partners using cherry-picked international comparators, the whole exercise comes across as misjudged and tone-deaf in the extreme.”
ENDS
Notes
– Scottish Business UK (SBUK) is an independent, non-party voice for business leaders who want to see Scotland thrive economically as part of the United Kingdom. SBUK is a registered company known as ‘SB Supports the Union Ltd’. https://scottish-business.uk
– SBUK’s Advisory Council currently has a membership overseeing business interests that together employ over 10,000 people in Scotland and 35,000 people across the UK and Ireland. Profiles of each member can be read at https://scottish-business.uk/about-us/.
SBUK is a registered company known as ‘SB Supports the Union Ltd’.
Contact: Media@scottish-business.uk
Tuesday 14 June 2022