NICOLA Sturgeon has mounted a fresh defence of her party’s controversial blueprint for independence amid growing criticism from the Left of the Yes movement.

The First Minister used a series of tweets to reassure supporters that last week’s SNP Growth Commission report - intended to be more economically realistic than the 2013 White Paper - would not mean continued austerity for a newly independent Scotland.

She said even the worst case scenario of a decade of tight public spending to halve the deficit would be better than sticking with Westminster, and claimed the Growth Commission would help win the argument for independence.

READ MORE: Further splits in Yes movement over SNP's Growth Commission report

The Tories said her intervention was “visibly desperate” and showed she was rattled by the adverse reaction to the report, which she commissioned in late 2016.

The 354-page document has been widely criticised on the Left of the Yes movement, with attacks from the Common Weal thinktank, former SNP MP George Kerevan and commentators including Mike Small and Iain Macwhirter.

It has been criticised in particular for prioritising deficit reduction over public spending, and a plan to use the pound, leaving Scotland tied to UK monetary policy.

The report has generated arguments on social media, with Radical Independence founder Jonathon Shafi called a "f***ing Unionost collaborator" on Twitter.

Colin Fox, the former Scottish Socialist MSP, today said his party would boycott any future independence campaign that put the Growth Commission at its centre.

He said the Commission, chaired by corporate lobbyist Andrew Wilson, offered nothing to the working class voters essential for a Yes vote beyond another decade of austerity.

Writing in The National, Mr Fox said: “It risks driving hundreds of thousands of former Yes voters into the hands of Jeremy Corbyn.”

Writing in the Herald today, Mr Macwhirter suggested the report made the SNP sound “like New Labour circa 1998” and could push people towards Scottish Labour.

LETTERS: No need for Yes movement to be split over Growth report

Amid the growing row, Ms Sturgeon said it was good to have a discussion, but said a few points were “worth underlining”.

She said the report “explicitly rejects austerity” and backed above inflation spending growth each year in contrast to the “failed Westminster approach”.

The report’s projections about deficit reduction were also “deliberately cautious” and “illustrate that even in worst case scenario independence is a better option that sticking with Westminster system that created the deficit.”

She went on: “We have a choice - stay as we are, locked into the Brexit spiral and continued austerity that the Westminster parties offer no alternative to - or decide to equip ourselves with the powers to build our way to a better future.

“We should welcome debate - but without independence, these choices will always be far too limited. That’s the case we must win - and #GrowthCommission helps us do it.”

Iain Macwhirter: Growth Commission report brings new hope to Labour

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: "The SNP promised a Growth Commission, but Nicola Sturgeon has found herself defending a Cuts Commission.

"The people of Scotland cannot afford another decade of austerity.

"Scotland has over a quarter of a million children living in poverty and pensioner poverty has increased by 33 per cent since 2010. We do not want another decade of austerity."

Scottish Conservative deputy Jackson Carlaw said: “This is a visibly desperate move by the First Minister, who’s clearly been rattled by the furious reaction of hardcore independence evangelists in recent days.

“But, as is so often the case when Nicola Sturgeon takes Donald Trump’s lead on tweeting, the content is dubious.

“This report made abundantly clear that a separate Scotland is likely to bring nothing other than economic hard times

“The authors accepted this, perhaps Scotland’s First Minister should too. After all, in establishing her commission, she created the beast which has now turned to bite her.”

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said the First Minister's "Twitter splurge" revealed her "deep anxiety" about Nationalist divisions.

He  said: "She is right to be concerned because her own Commission has been frank and honest about the risks posed by independence to the economy and money for the NHS and education.

"We are seeing with Brexit the damage caused by breaking relations with our neighbours. It would be even worse with independence which is why Nicola Sturgeon should abandon her plans for independence."

READ MORE: SNP ministers start work on recommendations from the party’s Growth Commission

The SNP has said the Commission's three sections - economic growth, public finances and currency - will be debated by party members in three National Assemblies over the summer.

However these will not vote on its contents.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay confirmed on Tuesday that Scottish Government civil servants had already been ordered to analyse the economic growth section of the report, before SNP members have had a chance to comment on them.