Michelle Mone’s got it all wrong with tax fears, Alex Salmond insists

BRA tycoon Michelle Mone has got it wrong over her threats to leave Scotland if the country votes for independence, Alex Salmond insisted yesterday.

Ms Mone, 40, said she would move to London with her business in the event of a Yes vote in the 2014 referendum to avoid tax hikes. But the First Minister insisted that SNP policy is to cut taxes for businesses.

Ms Mone said: “I will move my business and I will move personally. I don’t think we can survive on our own, and I think it would be really bad for business.

“Everything would go up and I really don’t think we need it at the moment.”

Ms Mone, from Glasgow, is the co-owner of MJM International and creator of lingerie brand Ultimo.

She made a similar threat to quit the country over the prospect of independence in the build-up to the 2007 election, amid concerns over tax increases.

Following her remarks, Ms Mone was involved in a war of words with some SNP supporters on Twitter.

Her comments follow concerns raised by other Scottish business figures, including Boyd Tunnock, managing director of Tunnock’s, that delay in posing the referendum question will harm the economy.

However, constitutional change has been supported by figures such as Dan Macdonald, the chief executive of property developer and investment company Macdonald Estates, and industrialist Jim McColl.

Mr Salmond said: “Michelle’s concerns seem to be predicated on the idea that we’d put tax up. In fact, our strategy is to lower business tax, which I think will be very helpful, not just at persuading Michelle Mone to stay, but attracting lots of other businesses to Scotland.”

A spokesman for finance secretary John Swinney said Scotland was attracting more inward investment jobs than anywhere else in the UK, including London.