Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that Scottish independence would lead to more jobs being created if the country rejoined the EU.
The First Minister faced more questions today about comments made by SNP candidate Emma Harper who claimed "jobs can be created if a border is created".
The Nationalist leader has denied her party wants to create any form of barrier between Scotland and England and has instead talked up the employment benefits independence could bring.
It comes as Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused the SNP of adopting "a confused position on this crucial matter".
The Tory MP said Sturgeon was "unable to answer basic questions" on issues such as borders and what currency an independent Scotland would adopt.
Speaking at a media briefing, the First Minister said: "In terms of jobs, I don't want to see barriers to trade in any way.
"But if Scotland was to be back in the European Single Market then I do think it is absolutely credible, and highly likely, that it would make us an even more attractive place for inward investment.
"And that inward investment would undoubtedly bring jobs - that would be the advantage of being in the Single Market.
"There is a lot of benefit that lies waiting to be grasped by a Scotland that is back in the EU."
Asked about what economic forecasts had been made regarding the impact of independence, the SNP leader said: "When covid struck last year I said I was putting planning for an independence referendum on hold because I was going to focus 100% on leading through the pandemic.
"Now I'm being criticised for not doing modelling on the financial impact of a referendum. The two reasons we haven't done it are we have been focusing on steering the country through a pandemic.
"Secondly, for that kind of information to be useful and relevant to help people inform a decision, it needs to be up to date.
"When we have great clarity about the timing of a referendum, then we will do that kind of work and put it before the Scottish people."
Sturgeon added: "As a general issue, borders are one of the questions people have about independence.
"I don't want any trade friction between Scotland and England or vice versa. We would work to avoid that.
"Of course, the government in Westminster is one that says that trade friction can be completely ironed out in Northern Ireland, which is still effectively in the Single Market.
"These things can be dealt with I believe so businesses don't suffer any practical difficulties."
Speaking at an election event today, Tory leader Ross said: “Over the last week we’ve had an SNP candidate say a border would be good for Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon saying there would be no border between Scotland and the rest of the UK if we were to separate, and then Nicola Sturgeon suggesting that there may be a border but it wouldn’t cause us any problems.
"Again it just shows the confused position of the SNP on this crucial matter.”
“It’s vitally important for 565,000 jobs here in Scotland that rely on seamless trade between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom that there is never that border between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
"The SNP plans to hold another independence referendum and effectively create that border if they were ever to get their way and separate Scotland from the rest of the UK.
“The fact that their position changes in three days shows how dangerous their plans are for Scotland, and for the whole of the United Kingdom.”
