Nicola Sturgeon has been called on to explain how a border with England would function if Scotland was to achieve independence.
The Tories said today that the SNP leader must clarify comments made by one of her party's election candidates on how a border could create jobs in the south of the country.
But the First Minister insisted: “Nobody in the SNP wants to see a border between Scotland and England”.
It comes as Emma Harper, an MSP in the last parliament who is standing for the Nationalists in West Dumfries and Galloway, said that “we can show that a border will work”.
In an interview with ITV, she said: “We’ve already got a hard border in the Irish Sea and that’s something that Boris Johnson told us we were not going to have.”
She was asked: “So why add another one here?”
Harper replied: “If a border will work, we can show that a border will work. There are issues that have been brought to my attention that show that jobs can be created if a border is created. And again, we want the softest of borders.”
The remarks were seized on today by the leader of the Scottish Conservatives who said Sturgeon must clarify a border plan or dismiss Harper's comments as "utter nonsense".
Douglas Ross said: “A referendum in the middle of a jobs crisis, while we’re still recovering from Covid, would send our economy spiralling into the deepest recession.
"The uncertainty would crush many businesses and ignite an even worse jobs crisis than the one we’re already facing from the pandemic.
“People in Scotland deserve to hear details from Nicola Sturgeon on how the SNP’s plan for a border between Scotland and England could possibly create jobs.
“The opposite is true – it would threaten the hundreds of thousands of Scottish jobs that rely on trade with the rest of the UK. The economic fallout of a border would be catastrophic.
“Nicola Sturgeon must either explain the SNP’s border plan to voters – or she can clarify that her candidate was talking utter nonsense."
Asked about Harper's comments today, the First Minister told ITV: "I've not seen Emma's comments directly, but no one in the SNP wants a border between Scotland and England.
"This is only being talked about because the UK Government decided to leave the EU and rip Scotland out of the EU.
"I want Scotland to trade freely across the UK, and trade freely across the world's biggest single market - which is the EU.
"It's the Tories that are about borders - it's the SNP that are about making Scotland an independent country but then operating economically and socially on the basis of equality."
