The number of jobs created in Scotland by foreign investment dropped to a five-year low during the referendum, it has emerged.
Scottish Government statistics revealed that only 3532 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) positions were recorded in 2014, the lowest since the recession years of 2008 and 2009. The Scottish Conservatives said the figures suggest warnings of uncertainty in the lead-up to last September’s vote were justified, despite the SNP dismissing those claims as “scaremongering” at the time.
And the nationalists have been warned that repeatedly floating the idea of a referendum re-run will only add to that uncertainty, jeopardising more jobs in future created by foreign investment.
The results from the Ernst and Young UK survey were published following a parliamentary question by Scottish Conservative MSP Gavin Brown.
They showed that as talk of Scotland separating from the UK intensified, investors from overseas were less likely to put money into projects here.
In 2011 almost 6000 FDI jobs were recorded, but that fell by more than 1000 in 2012, and again by 700 the year after.
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said:
“It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that these figures dropped as it looked as though Scotland breaking away from the UK was a possibility.
“Business leaders and experts warned in the run-up to the vote that the issue was causing major uncertainty for investors considering putting their cash into Scotland.
“Now we have the statistical evidence to back that up.
“There’s a clear pattern of these jobs increasing as we battled back from recession, then slumping when the referendum question became more pressing.
“The SNP should consider this consequence when it repeatedly argues for a second referendum, because every time that threat is made, investors could get spooked again.”