Scottish independence would provide a unique opportunity for Scotland to create jobs within the country, according to Scotland's deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Sturgeon was speaking on a visit to Steel Engineering in Renfrew. She claimed that Scotland is "among the wealthiest countries in the world" and would benefit from the chance to control its jobs market.
"As an independent nation we would start from the strongest possible economic foundations, and using the powers that come from voting yes we will be able to build from these foundations," she said.
Sturgeon believes Scotland has the "wealth, the confidence and the abilities" to succeed as a financially independent nation.
Economic 'hole'
Countering that view, former prime minister Gordon Brown claimed independence would put at risks one million jobs dependent on trade with the rest of the UK.
"This is not the fear of the unknown – this is now the risks of the known," he said at a community event in Glasgow. "An economic minefield where problems could implode at any time, an economic trapdoor down which we go, from which we might never escape.
"We will face a massive financial hole that cannot be made up with even a fraction of the oil revenues, a massive financial hole that means the risk to the NHS does not come from us, it comes from the policies of the SNP."
