Referendum countdown: Salmond accuses PM of ‘scaremongering’

The First Minister hit out during a meeting with Scottish business leaders at Edinburgh Airport.

He also repeated his allegation that the Treasury leaked information to the media over RBS plans to relocate its headquarters to England if there is a Yes vote.

His comments come after a number of banks, businesses and leading retailers voiced their concerns over independence.

Voters will decide the future of Scotland when they go to the polls on Thursday.

Mr Salmond said: “When you try to pressurise people, pressurise companies, as the Prime Minister has undoubtedly been doing and indeed the Treasury, then that’s a different circumstance.

“I think people in Scotland will know the Prime Minister’s fingerprints are all over the scaremongering campaign and the Treasury’s fingerprints are all over the bank campaign.”

Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned in Edinburgh last week, is also back in Scotland today.

When Mr Cameron addressed financial services workers last week, he told them it would break his heart if Scots voted Yes and split apart the UK “family of nations”.

Today, he is expected to issue a stark warning to waverers that there could be “no going back” if they opt for independence.

Mr Salmond added: “This is said to be David Cameron’s last campaign visit to Scotland.

“The next time he comes to Scotland it will not be to love-bomb or engage in desperate last-minute scaremongering, and following a Yes vote it will be to engage in serious post-referendum talks in the best interests of the people of Scotland and the rest of the UK, as pledged in the Edinburgh Agreement.

“From our side, those talks will be taken forward with a Team Scotland approach, involving people on a cross-party basis encompassing talents from across the spectrum.”

The First Minister met with business leaders including Brian Souter of Stagecoach and former William Hill chief executive Ralph Topping in a bid to highlight the economic opportunities a Yes vote on Thursday could bring.

Mr Salmond said: “More and more of Scotland’s businesspeople and job-creators are backing a Yes vote because they know it is the only way we will get the economic powers we need.

“Scotland, with just one per cent of the European Union’s population, has around 20% of its fish stocks, a quarter of Europe’s renewable energy potential and around 60% of the EU’s conventional oil reserves.

“Those huge resources, coupled with our massive human talents, means no country has ever been so well-placed economically to become independent.