'Crafty Alex' could end UK, warns Scottish Lib Dem leader

Published on Saturday 25 June 2011 16:15

THE Scottish Liberal Democrat leader has warned that independence will become a reality unless more is done to highlight the costs of splitting up the United Kingdom.

Willie Rennie, new Lib Dem leader at Holyrood, believes the surge in SNP support has made independence a distinct possibility. He said: "Independence could happen, because (First Minister] Alex Salmond is crafty he may well get people over the edge before they know it. He may well win it."

His admission goes further than other leaders of Unionist parties, who have said they are confident of winning an independence referendum because most Scots still want to be part of the UK.

But Rennie points out that a recent poll suggested the proportion of Scots who would vote "yes" in a referendum has risen by six points to 37 per cent in the past 18 months.

Rennie added: "It really is a possibility now. People have got to realise that their votes have consequences and that their neighbours might well be voting for independence and, with Alex Salmond's crafty tactics, they might end up being somewhere they did not expect to be before long."

He believes voters must be told of the financial consequences of independence. For example, Lib Dem research suggests it would cost Scottish universities 32 million a year in fees they would lose from English, Welsh and Northern Irish students. After independence, the 29,830 higher education students who travel from elsewhere in the UK to study in Scotland would be regarded as European Union students, and entitled to free education in Scotland.

A spokesman for education secretary Michael Russell said: "Willie Rennie is wrong, and is making a serious mistake in following Labour and the Tories in making desperate attacks on independence - he is ignoring the reality of the fees levied on EU students in Ireland."