Facts winning No battle argues Douglas Alexander
The shadow foreign secretary was speaking in a live BBC debate between both sides of the referendum campaign last night.
His comments came after RBS, Tesco Bank, TSB, Lloyds and Clydesdale Bank last week issued market advisories on their contingency plans in the event of independence, suggesting they may move their headquarters to England.
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Hide AdOn Saturday leading phone companies became the latest sector to join a chorus of warnings from the business community about the potential negative consequences of a Yes vote.
Mr Alexander said: “What happened last week was an avalanche of facts engulfed the assertions that we’ve had from the nationalists in the last few weeks.
“You have to ask why every single Scottish bank said that they would move their registered headquarters to England in the event of a Yes vote, because 90% of the products of many of those banks are sold to English customers, so they want to be part of a UK regulatory system, they want the authority of the Bank of England, the central bank, behind them and they want the security of 63 million taxpayers behind them.
“These organisations are not lying. They’ve got a responsibility.”
He added: “Personally I believe there’s a better way that we can secure the 200,000 jobs that are in financial services here in Scotland and that’s to have the faster, safer, better change that is being offered within the United Kingdom so that we can hold on to the currency, we can hold on to the regulator and we can hold on to the stability that’s the platform for those Scottish jobs.”
The debate also featured Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson for the No camp and SNP MP Stewart Hosie and actor Elaine C Smith for the Yes side.
Ms Davidson said: “I don’t think it’s good for Scottish business, I don’t think it’s good for people looking at Scotland, wanting to see Scotland open for business, to see a whole list of companies saying they are moving their headquarters down south.”
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Hide AdMr Hosie said that it was normal for businesses to put contingency plans in place for various eventualities.
He said: “Those businesses warn about all sorts of other things. Some of them have an EU in/out referendum on their risk register, others are even concerned about modest extra devolution, so of course they will consider all of the things that are going to come up next and will put in place the contingency plans they need to take, that is absolutely normal, but no jobs are to be lost, no functions are to be lost and I think we need to stay very calm and understand in this wealthy, prosperous nation if businesses think they can make a profit they will continue to run and operate in and out of Scotland to the benefit of themselves and the economy.”
He added: “In terms of what’s happened with the markets, the markets haven’t been spooked because of Scottish independence, they have been spooked by the lack of preparedness of the British Government for Scottish independence.”
Elaine C Smith questioned whether there had been enough balance in the debate.
She said: “For all we’ve been told about balance, there are thousands of businesses small, medium and large in Scotland who also do not have that fear, that absolute terror of what is going to happen and they are not being given the same voice.
“This is all about lender of last resort and this could all be sorted and no run on the pound would have happened if George Osborne had simply said there will be a currency union.”
The debate, in Stirling, also covered issues including the NHS and media coverage of the referendum debate.
It was the last live televised BBC debate before the referendum on September 18.
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