Sturgeon says Scotland would fare far better in EU as independent nation

Scotland would benefit from hundreds of millions of pounds of extra funds and thousands more jobs if it was an independent member of the European Union, according to Nicola Sturgeon.

The Deputy First Minister used a speech at the David Hume Institute in Edinburgh to claim that, if Scotland was represented as an independent nation in the EU, it would have received £850 million in Common Agricultural Policy funding, which would have supported an extra 2,500 jobs.

She added that CAP funding would increase economic output by £1 billion, accumulated from this year to 2020.

Ms Sturgeon said that the additional £850m in farm payments would “assist rural communities and businesses.”

She also claimed that the “only risk to Scotland’s continuing membership of the EU” is the proposed in/out referendum the Conservative Party has pledged to hold by 2017 if it wins the 2015 General Election.

Chancellor George Osborne has warned the UK could be forced to quit the European Union if the organisation does not reform.