SNP ministers have been forced to admit their claim Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind power potential is false, despite internally conceding two years ago the figure has never been “properly sourced”.

Senior Government figures have been using the claim Scotland is home to 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind resource potential for years. However, a new report from the pro-union think-tank, These Islands, debunks the figure, with ministers now admitting the figure is false and “requires updating”.

The These Island report claims the real figure is closer to four to 6 per cent, and suggests the Scottish Government attempted to justify the claim with “obviously flawed calculations”.

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford repeated the claim in the House of Commons last week during a debate on Scottish independence and the Scottish economy. In fact, the statistic was repeated three times by three different SNP MPs, including their deputy Westminster leader, in that debate.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Politics Matters