Our Politics newsletter is now daily. Join thousands of others and get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

ALEX Salmond’s flagship childcare plan was branded a “shambles” yesterday after it was demolished by the Scottish Parliament’s own officials.

Neutral civil servants at Holyrood published a bombshell briefing paper which found that the key plank of his argument for independence is missing £700million and 40,000 mums.

The revelation forced the SNP to admit they had done no economic modelling of their figures and have no idea when the initiative would begin to pay for itself.

Scottish Labour’s Neil Bibby said it showed “just how amateur and ridiculous the Scottish Government’s policy-making has become”.

The pledge to give all children over a year old 1140 hours of childcare by the end of 2024 was at the heart of the high-profile White Paper on independence published by Salmond last year.

SNP strategists hoped the move would help them win support from women, who polls show are more strongly opposed to independence.

The White Paper claimed raising free nursery provision from 600 to 1140 hours a year would allow six per cent more women to take up a job as they wouldn’t have to juggle

childcare responsibilities.

That would raise £700million in extra taxes to fund the free nursery places.

But the Scottish Government have now admitted those figures are only illustrative and not based on actual sums. There is no hard evidence that the proposed extra childcare would lead to a six per cent rise in the female workforce – or generate £700million.

But the biggest blow to the SNP’s credibility is that there aren’t enough young mums in Scotland to boost the workforce to the required level.

The SNP’s plan, based on employment levels in Sweden, would require an extra 104,000 women to go into work.

Yet the Scottish Parliament Information Centre revealed that in 2011, there were only 64,000 jobless women with children under primary school age.

And of those, only 14,000 said they would like to go back to work if they could.

Spice produces analysis for MSPs like the House of Commons Library and is independent of

the Scottish Government and political parties.

Scottish Labour’s Neil Bibby said: “This analysis by the Scottish Parliament’s independent experts blows apart Alex Salmond’s flagship childcare proposal.

“No full costings, no economic analysis, no financial modelling and the fact that they’re at least 40,000 mothers short shows just how amateur and ridiculous the Scottish Government’s policy-making has become.

“The SNP have misled parents. Scotland deserves better than this. It is more evidence that you can’t trust a word that comes out of Alex Salmond’s mouth.

“It would appear, given how shambolic this proposal is, that the SNP have no intention of ever having to deliver it. If they win in September, then no one will be able to hold them to it.

“To win this referendum, the SNP are willing to sacrifice the truth, millions of pounds and

now the basic credibility of policy formulation by government.

“It is a shoddy state of affairs from a shoddy government, peddling a proposal which

simply doesn’t add up.”

A spokesman for Salmond said the 104,000 women would come into the workforce over a number of years.

But he admitted that the Government have no projections for when this economic boost would be achieved.

He added: “The SPICe paper gives too much weight to the 64,000. The key point about the policy is that it doesn’t happen on one day and then cease.

“The estimate of 104,000 women is not for a single moment in time. Women continue to have babies and drop out of the labour market. The problem is too many then don’t come back in. The 104,000 is established over a longer period of time.

“Substantial research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the EU says the single most important barrier to female participation in the workforce

is the inability to access affordable childcare.”