Economy Secretary Keith Brown has blamed the "desperate panic" for a General Election on fear of Brexit damaging the economy.
Speaking to business and financial figures at a Brexit debate in Edinburgh, Mr Brown said there is a "clear consensus" that leaving the European Union (EU) would hit the economy.
He said: "I think the UK Government is seeing what is coming down the track and that's why there is a desperate panic General Election that's happening.
"Many people in the business community have said to me that the approach of the UK Government has been utterly shambolic if you think about the lead ministers involved in this.
"There is a clear consensus that leaving the EU is going to be damaging to the UK economy."
He said the Fraser of Allander Institute predicted Brexit would cost the economy £11 billion a year by 2030 and lead to the loss of 80,000 jobs.
Mr Brown said Scotland should have a separate immigration policy and stressed freedom of movement was crucial to the economy.
Speaking at the same event, organised by the Sunday Times Scotland and Brodies LLP, Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said his party supported special deals for sectors of the economy rather than geographic areas, and questioned how a Scotland-specific immigration policy would work in practice.
He said predictions the UK economy would struggle following the Brexit vote had not come to pass, adding Scotland is the only area in the UK where the economy is struggling.
Mr Fraser said: "Why is only Scotland teetering on the brink of recession when every other part of the UK is doing well?
"I think going on and on and on about a second independence referendum is the most damaging thing for economic recovery in Scotland."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel