Scottish independence: SNP angered as Treasury office plan announced

A new post is being created offering a salary package of up to £50,600 a year between now and the end of 2014 – the period running up to the SNP’s preferred date for a vote on whether Scotland will leave the UK.

The “head of Scotland analysis and stakeholder engagement” will lead a Treasury office in Edinburgh and compile information for the UK government as the independence referendum nears.

However, the creation of the post, which includes work alongside ministers and senior officials in London and Scotland, was criticised by an SNP MSP, John Wilson, who said that the post “smacked of hypocrisy” after unionist parties attacked Alex Salmond for wanting to hire an adviser on international affairs.

Mr Wilson, deputy head of Holyrood’s economy committee, said: “Clearly this is the UK government attempting to politicise its civil service in the lead-up to the referendum in 2014.”

SNP Treasury spokesman Stewart Hosie added: “The Treasury currently employs not a single person in Scotland – it is disgraceful that they should be spending yet more public money trying to stop the people of Scotland voting for independence.”

Eben Wilson, director of the Taxpayer Scotland campaign group, said: “It really is galling with the referendum still two years away that the political elite think it right to spend taxpayers’ money on self-serving exercises.”

However, a Treasury spokeswoman defended the move.

She said: “This key civil service role will bolster the team already working on this programme in the Treasury, including on integral issues such as the economy and, based in Edinburgh, will add to the government’s already strong engagement with stakeholders in Scotland.”