Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Kirsty Blackman claims Brexit poses £2 billion risk to the north-east

Kirsty Blackman: MP for Aberdeen North
Kirsty Blackman: MP for Aberdeen North

Brexit poses a similar risk to the north-east economy as that inflicted by the oil price slump, the SNP’s economy spokeswoman has warned.

On the eve of the SNP conference, Kirsty Blackman, the Aberdeen North MP, said the party predicted the value of the local economy’s goods and services could fall by a “rough” estimate of around £2 billion.

As SNP activists head to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre for their spring gathering, Ms Blackman said the potential for economic damage to the area reinforced her party’s arguments for halting Brexit.

Some forecasters estimated the impact of the 2014 oil price drop on Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire at around £1.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA), an economic measure of the value of goods and services in an area.

Ms Blackman said: “It looks like Brexit could push us back in that direction. In terms of a rough figure we could end up losing that £2 billion again.”

“We can see what happened with the reduction in the oil and gas price.

“We saw a lot of jobs being lost and a lot of businesses going out of business when the local economy wasn’t performing as well as it had previously.

“Our concern is that we end up in a situation like that again with Brexit.”

Ms Blackman quoted a Grampian Chamber of Commerce oil and gas survey which found that 45% of firms in the sector believed Brexit would have a harmful effect on business.

She said the whisky industry would be affected by tariffs.

“This is not just an issue for those companies that export to the EU but it is also an issue for firms, like whisky companies, that export to countries that we have a trade deal with through the EU,” Ms Blackman said.

She also warned that Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University could be hit by restrictions on thousands of EU students.

“The amount they bring to the economy can’t be underestimated,” she said. “It is huge.

“What we’ve got to do is stop Brexit, because that means we wouldn’t have those immediate economic worries.”

The Brexit-supporting MP for Aberdeen South, Ross Thomson, described her remarks as a “predictable Brexit doomsday scenario”.

He said the UK Government was working to deliver an orderly EU withdrawal.

“The SNP are just scaremongering about Brexit to agitate for another independence referendum that the majority in Scotland don’t want,” Mr Thomson added.