A new poll has shown the vast majority of people believe that Scotland’s budget will be slashed by Westminster after a No vote.
The survey, carried out by Survation for the Yes campaign, revealed that 58% thought the block grant would be cut, 22% did not know, leaving just 20% – one in five – who said it would not.
Reductions to Holyrood’s budget could have a knock-on effect on the NHS, a key battleground in the independence debate.
The three main UK parties all expect spending to continue to be squeezed in the next parliament, but there is no indication as yet of how Scotland would be affected.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Next month’s referendum is a choice of two futures, and one of the reasons for the increase in support for Yes is the threat to spending and services under continued Westminster austerity, including our precious NHS.
“By a majority of nearly three-to-one, people in Scotland believe that our budget would be cut if we voted No – posing huge damage to the health service.
“This reflects the Future of England survey published this week, which actually found four-to-one support south of the border for cutting Scottish spending.
“But the reality is that Scotland is a very wealthy country – with higher economic output per head than France, Japan and indeed the UK – and we have generated more tax per head than the UK average in each and every one of the last 33 years.”
However, a Better Together spokesman said: the “real threat” to spending on schools and hospitals in Scotland is independence itself.
“The experts at the impartial Institute for Fiscal Studies have said a separate Scotland would need to make extra spending cuts worth £6billion in the first few years after independence,” he said.
“That puts our schools and hospitals at risk. It’s a risk we don’t have to take. We should say ‘no thanks’ to independence.”