Business leaders should vote No to independence to maintain the barrier-free trade that Scotland enjoys with the rest of the UK, according to the head of the Better Together campaign.
Alistair Darling launched Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s referendum consultation at a dinner in the capital last night.
Mr Darling said: “The next two years give us an opportunity to fully examine the issues relating to Scotland’s future.
“I believe that we can have the best of both worlds. We can have a strong Scottish Parliament with full control over areas such as health and education and we can take strength from being a part of the oldest and most successful single market in the world.
“Scottish firms sell more to the rest of the UK than they do to all of the other countries of the world combined. There are no barriers to trade. We sell our goods just as easily in Essex as we do in Edinburgh. This is just one of the many reasons that mean that we are better together with the rest of the UK.”
Edinburgh Pentlands SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald said: “The No campaign’s scaremongering about an independent Scotland, which (Scottish businessman) Sir Tom Hunter has warned Mr Darling about, has spectacularly rebounded in recent weeks, with Westminster now threatening to wrench Scotland and the UK out of the European Union and its single market of over half a billion people.
“Alistair Darling has himself described Scotland’s relationship with the EU as ‘critical’.
“He must now spell out to Scottish businesses what would happen if, in a UK European referendum, the Tory Europhobes won the vote and dragged Scotland out of the EU.”