Brexit has led to an expected loss of £3bn a year to public revenues in Scotland, the Scottish Government has claimed.
It has published a new paper to mark the seventh anniversary of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, which sets out the consequences of the vote.
While almost two thirds of Scots voted to remain in the EU, the UK as a whole narrowly opted to leave.
As well as the loss of public revenue, the Scottish Government paper stated that leaving the EU is responsible for about a third of the “rampant” food price inflation currently being experienced across the UK.
Meanwhile, more than two fifths (44%) of Scottish businesses named Brexit as the main cause of trading difficulties they have with overseas customers.
Some 45% of tourism businesses in the Highlands and islands are dealing with staff shortages as a result of the UK quitting the EU, the paper claimed.
Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson also highlighted the “hundreds of millions of pounds” of European funding that have been lost to Scotland’s rural and research sectors.
“Seven years after people in Scotland resoundingly rejected Brexit, the Scottish Government has published a paper that lays clear the damage it has inflicted,“ he stated.
“Brexit means Scotland has now left the world’s biggest single market and no longer enjoys freedom of movement, resulting in labour shortages across the NHS, agriculture, and our hospitality sector.
“Consumers and businesses continue to face a cost-of-living crisis driven by rampant food inflation, while produce rots in the ground, and obstructive trade barriers that are making it harder to import and export goods from the EU.
“Scotland’s rural and research sectors have lost out on hundreds of millions of pounds worth of EU funding, which the UK Government has been unable to match.
“A generation of young Scots have been deprived of life-changing exchange opportunities to study abroad,“ Robertson continued, adding: “While we will continue to do all we can to mitigate this damage through our long-standing ties with European neighbours, the fact remains that the only way to meaningfully reverse this damage and restore the benefits Scotland previously enjoyed is for an independent Scotland to rejoin the European Union.”
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