The UK has entered recession after a 20.4 percent contraction between April and June. The UK’s slump is also one of the biggest among advanced economies, according to preliminary estimates. Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned last month that the recession would represent a difficult time for the country. Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK warns that the growing frustrations with the economic crisis will ultimately lead to the break up of the union.
He said: “In the middle of all this we have Brexit as well as the potential for Scotland to leave the union.
“The last prime minister to lose a part of the union was Lloyd George, and he was the last liberal prime minister.
“If Boris Johnson loses Scotland in the middle of this, is he the last Conservative prime minister?
“I ask this seriously, because he has created a situation where it will happen now.
“Will Scotland stay? I don’t see any way. They will leave at some point. This is the collapse of the whole national morale.
“Our identity is at threat here if he doesn’t get the answers to this economic question right.”
Mr Murphy’s comments come after the SNP have made significant strides to increase support for a break up of the union in Scotland.
Polling last month by Panelbase shows 55 percent in favour of breaking with the union, with 45 percent against – an exact reversal of the 2014 referendum result.
Last week, Nicola Sturgeon announced she will introduce legislation on the timings and terms for a second independence referendum.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon furious as Brexit plan ‘makes independence less likely
“They’ll say ‘you could have kept us in work and our homes, but you didn’t because you prioritised the national debt.’
“Those people could then vote Labour, at every level this threatens the Conservative Government’s survival.
“If they don’t extend the furlough scheme it will be catastrophic, both politically for the Conservatives and economically for the country.
“If he goes back, and he is signalling this, to ‘sound finance’ – by which he means prioritising the debt, he will write the death knell of this Conservative government.”
