Sturgeon vows to push for control of Scottish finances

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged that she would use increased clout in Westminster to push for fiscal autonomy for Scotland "as quickly as possible", waving aside fears that taking control of all the country's taxes would risk disastrous budget cuts.

The Scottish National party leader upped the ante on fiscal autonomy during the second debate between the country's political party leaders in as many days, a BBC-hosted encounter that yielded vigorous, and often loud, debate but no clear winner.

Leaders of the pro-union parties have sought to force the SNP on to the defensive over its call for devolution of control over taxes, saying that the slump in oil prices means such autonomy would deprive Scotland of billions of pounds of revenue.

But Ms Sturgeon said that if the SNP won a substantial presence in Westminster at May's general election - as polls suggest it will - nationalist MPs would waste no time in pushing for full autonomy.

"If the SNP is there in numbers we'd be arguing for as many powers to come to Scotland as quickly as possible," she said. "I would like it as quickly as the other parties agree to give it."

SNP strategists say that despite the potentially severe implications for spending, full control over tax is popular among the public - and would anyway take years to implement, leaving time for oil prices to recover.

Ms Sturgeon tried to turn the issue back on Jim Murphy, Scottish Labour leader, asking him whether he would back full fiscal autonomy.

But in response that will dismay English colleagues who think Scottish spending is being unfairly subsidised, Mr Murphy offered an assertive defence of the current system of calculating a block grant for Scotland using the "Barnett Formula".

Full fiscal autonomy would cut Scotland off from "sources of taxation all across the UK", including Labour's proposed mansion tax, which will be levied overwhelmingly in southern England but would bring "tens of millions" of pounds to Scotland, Mr Murphy said.

"I want to keep the Barnett Formula today, tomorrow and forever," he said.

The BBC debate reprised many of the themes of an STV encounter on Tuesday but with the addition of the leaders of the Scottish Greens and UK Independence party alongside the SNP, Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Ms Sturgeon came under renewed attack over her refusal to rule out including another referendum on independence in the SNP's manifesto for the 2016 Scottish parliamentary election.

However, Ruth Davidson, Scottish Conservative leader, appeared to differ from UK leader David Cameron on whether the party should permit another independence referendum if one was demanded by a Scottish government.

In an interview with the UK parliament's The House magazine, Mr Cameron said the issue of Scottish independence had been settled. Ms Davidson said the Conservatives would never compromise on defending the union and would feel deeply betrayed if the SNP abandoned its pledge that an independence referendum was a "once in a generation" event.

However, she said the Conservatives would not block a referendum "if the circumstances arose again".

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