Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of “tying herself in knots” after finally admitting that English taxpayers would not be responsible for funding the state pension in an independent Scotland.
The SNP faced widespread ridicule last week after Ian Blackford, the party’s Westminster leader, stated that “absolutely nothing” would change about the payment of the state pension following Scottish separation.
In an effort to reassure OAPs, who overwhelmingly voted No in the 2014 referendum, he claimed “that commitment to continue to pay pensions rests with the UK Government”.
He compared Scotland leaving the UK to a British expat living in a foreign country but continuing to claim the state pension. Kate Forbes, the SNP Finance Secretary, endorsed his view.
The SNP repeatedly doubled down on the claim over the past week, stating that Scots “would be entitled to the pension contributions they had made to the UK system”.
Current tax revenues
This is despite the state pension being funded from the UK’s current tax revenues rather than any retirement pot built up by Scots during their working lives.
Mr Blackford’s proposal would mean English, Welsh and Northern Irish workers paying their taxes to fund the state pension in a separate country. The cost in Scotland is currently around £8.5billion per year.
Ms Sturgeon on Wednesday finally conceded that on “an ongoing basis it will be for the Scottish Government to fund Scottish pensions” if she succeeded in breaking up Britain.
However, the First Minister continued to argue that the state pension would be included in divorce negotiations with the UK Government over “historic assets and liabilities”.
Ms Sturgeon has said she will decide shortly on a timetable for a new independence referendum. She has ordered 11 civil servants to oversee the production of a sales pitch to the Scottish people.
Donald Cameron, the Scottish Tories’ Shadow Constitution Secretary, said: “Nicola Sturgeon is tying herself in knots over this issue.
Dancing on the head of a pin
“She clearly knows – as does everyone else – that Ian Blackford’s claim that the UK would be responsible for paying pensions in an independent Scotland was absurd. But the First Minister is reluctant to completely hang him out to dry so she is left dancing on the head of a pin.”
He added: ““The SNP knows the economic case for independence has never been weaker, which explains their deception over this.”
Invited by BBC Scotland to “clarify” the SNP’s policy, Ms Sturgeon insisted there was no need as it had not changed.
Asked if she accepted there was no UK state pension pot to share out, she said: “Of course, it is for a Scottish Government to be responsible for the payment of pensions but the historic liabilities and assets around pensions, as around other things, will be a matter of negotiation at the point of independence.”
Challenged that the state pension is paid out of current UK tax revenue, she conceded “that is the case” but cited a recent report by economists stating the issue would “become a matter for wider negotiations around the division of assets and liabilities in general”.
Previously, the SNP relied on an intervention before the 2014 referendum by Steve Webb, then UK pensions minister, in which he said people who had “accumulated rights” would be entitled to current levels of state pension in an independent Scotland.
However, Mr Webb promptly corrected this error at the time, writing to MPs that it would be for an independent Scottish Government to fund its own state pensions and noting that Scotland’s population was ageing more rapidly than the UK’s.
Guy Opperman, the current pensions minister, accused the SNP of “misleading” Scots and said working people in the remainder of the UK “should not pay for a foreign country’s pension liabilities”.
