Professor Colin Jones

Professor Colin Anthony Jones of Heriot-Watt University told The Times that UK financial institutions have spent a smaller percentage of investment expenditure in Scotland since the first 2014 referendum.

He said: “The percentage of investment expenditure in Scotland of the total by these UK financial institutions falls to just 2.9 per cent and then 2.1 per cent in 2015 and 2016 respectively. In comparison, the figure was 6.8 per cent in the preceding two years.

“In fact 2015 and 2016 represent the two lowest percentages since 2000 when such records began. The average percentage prior to 2015 was 5.3 per cent and on an upward incline.

“The neverendum, therefore, wreaked dramatic change in the pattern of transaction activity in Scotland with the decline in UK institutional investment.”

Professor Jones said potential concerns for UK investors about independence would include “uncertainty about the political direction of a new country”, as well as the future of the Scottish economy.

However, public finance minister Kate Forbes said: “The facts tell quite a different story. In the run-up to the 2014 referendum, the Scottish economy grew by 1.9 per cent and foreign direct investment increased — cementing Scotland’s position as the UK’s most attractive place to invest outside London.

“Brexit currently remains the biggest threat to Scotland’s economy. By taking us out of a market around eight times bigger than the UK alone, leaving the EU will cost jobs, make people poorer and undermine the democratic decision of the people of Scotland to remain in the European Union.”