'EVERY man, woman and child in Perth and Kinross, Fife, Stirling and Clackmannanshire is better off to the tune of £1600 thanks to Scotland being part of the UK, it has been revealed.

The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures have emphasised just how valuable our membership of the wider UK is.

They show Scotland currently has a deficit of £14.8 billion, which is 9.5 per cent of GDP which compares to the UK’s deficit of four per cent, a gap of 5.5 per cent.

This data shows an independent Scotland would have to find an additional £8.6 billion to plug the financial hole.

The GERS figures revealed that oil and gas accounted for just 0.1 per cent of total tax revenue, compared to 17 per cent in 2011/12. GERS analysis simply confirms the fact that Scotland benefits massively from being a member of the United Kingdom.

When times are tough in Scotland, as they are now, the union means we can top up public spending so we don’t have to make huge cuts to the NHS or increase family tax bills.

This union dividend amounted to £1600 for every man, woman and child last year, according to these figures.

That’s how unions work – when one member needs support, the union provides it.

We have seen the First Minister fear-mongering over the UK’s decision to leave the EU in the hope she can hide the flaws in her own separation plan.

It would be better if she faced up to the truth – you don’t meet the challenges of leaving one union by quitting one of far more importance to Scotland’s prosperity.

Even the SNP’s own MPs say five more painful years of cuts would be necessary to deal with the shock of separation.

There is an easy way for this threat to be lifted and that is for Nicola Sturgeon to ditch her negative campaign to split up Britain.

It is time she acted like a proper First Minister, ended her unwanted plan to take us back to another toxic referendum, and allowed Scotland to move on.'