An independent Scotland cannot be stopped from using sterling even if London refuses a formal currency union, nationalist leader Alex Salmond said on Thursday, just two days after he failed to win a televised debate dominated by the issue.
The future currency of an independent Scotland remains one of the major issues in the campaign just six weeks before Scots decide in a Sept. 18 referendum whether to break their 307-year union with England.
After a television debate in which Salmond was peppered with questions by unionist Alistair Darling about his "Plan B" for the currency given London's opposition to any currency union, Salmond was again quizzed on Thursday about his plans.
At a question-and-answer session in the Scottish parliament, Scottish Labour Party leader Johann Lamont repeatedly asked Salmond: "What is your Plan B?"
"It's Scotland's pound and we're keeping it," Salmond said at the session, known as First Minister's Questions.
"We cannot be stopped from keeping the pound because it is an internationally traded currency."
British ministers have repeatedly ruled out a currency union. Finance minister George Osborne told Scots in February that the pound was not like a CD collection which could be split up when a couple separated.
In Tuesday's television debate, unionist campaign leader Darling said Salmond was basically proposing using sterling like Panama or Ecuador used the dollar.
Opinion polls show Scots are likely to reject independence, though up to 1 million Scots are still undecided.
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