SCOTTISH Conservative claims that the latest GERS figures show “the highest Union dividend ever” are a “fiction of the Tory imagination”, an economics expert has said.
Speaking to The National after the publication of the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures on Wednesday, Professor Richard Murphy hit out at Unionist representation of the data.
The Conservatives claimed that the “Union dividend” – which they said they calculated by combining “the value of Scotland’s higher spending and lower revenue compared to the UK as a whole” – reached £12 billion last year, or more than £2100 per person.
However, Murphy, a political economist and chartered accountant, said GERS was “nonsense”.
He explained: “It includes expenditure which we have no idea if it’s for Scotland, and excludes income which should be attributed to Scotland …
“Put those two factors together – understated income and overstated expenditure – and you’ll come up with a proper set of accounts for an independent Scotland which would still show a deficit, but nothing like the one that is claimed by the likes of Douglas Ross.”
The 2022 GERS figures claimed Scotland had a 2021/22 deficit of 12.3% of GDP (gross domestic product), more than twice the UK’s deficit, which stood at 6.1% of GDP over the equivalent period.
In October 2021, the UK Government announced a “record” £41 billion per year would be handed to the Scottish Government to run devolved expenditure.
GERS estimated that £73.8bn of tax income was raised north of the Border, and that £97.5bn of expenditure was spent on Scotland’s behalf, by both the UK and Scottish Governments.
Responding to the data, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross wrote on Twitter: “The latest GERS figures hammer home the huge benefits we all get as part of the United Kingdom.
“Every person in Scotland is £2184 better off – that’s the highest Union dividend ever.
“These figures are a devastating blow to Nicola Sturgeon’s push for indyref2.”
The latest GERS figures hammer home the huge benefits we all get as part of the United Kingdom. Every person in Scotland is £2,184 better off - that’s the highest Union dividend ever. These figures are a devastating blow to Nicola Sturgeon’s push for indyref2. pic.twitter.com/8FXoPPOHjT
— Douglas Ross MP MSP (@Douglas4Moray) August 24, 2022
Murphy questioned the MSP's claims, telling The National they were a “fiction of the Tory imagination”.
“There isn’t a deficit of that scale in Scotland,” he went on. “Is there a £2000 subsidy to Scotland? Oh come on, let’s not be stupid and patronising about this, which is what Douglas Ross is being.
“He’s saying that Scotland is too poor to be independent, and at the same time is desperate to keep it. You can’t hold those two ideas in your mind simultaneously.
“Either you want to be rid of Scotland because it’s a burden on the Exchequer in England, in which case get rid of it, or you want Scotland because actually you know that in reality it’s contributing a great deal to the overall wealth of the UK.”
The economics expert further criticised the GERS figures as a whole, saying he was at a loss to understand why the Scottish Government continued to sign them off.
Murphy said: “There is nothing else that I have ever seen in accounting for governments anywhere in the world that is like GERS. We make up a place which is called Scotland – but isn’t Scotland, which is given costs which aren’t incurred in Scotland, but is restricted to being said to have revenues that are only those raised in Scotland.
“This is make-believe accounting that exists solely in the context of the Scottish debate and literally nowhere else in the world, not even anywhere else in the UK.”
Professor Richard Murphy spoke at length with The National, answering questions on the GERS figures submitted by readers. You can watch the full conversation here:
Your questions on GERS answered LIVE by economics expert Professor Richard Murphy https://t.co/Ne2dSurDAp
— The National (@ScotNational) August 24, 2022
