BORIS Johnson is set to claim that it will cost more than £150 million to hold referendums on Brexit and Scottish independence next year.

The Prime Minister, who’s in Fife today to launch the Scottish Tory manifesto, said his party’s analysis suggested that it would take a minimum of nine months to hold both referendums next year and would cost £155m – with the second EU vote costing an estimated £138m and the indyref2 costing £17m.

The party leader also warned that giving the vote to 16-year-olds within nine months could cost up to £500m or result in an additional delay of at least six months to pass the necessary legislation and allow the Electoral Commission to register them.

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Speaking ahead of the launch, Johnson said: “A majority Conservative government would get Brexit done and focus on the people’s priorities – such as increasing funding in our NHS and reducing the cost of living.

“The alternative is Jeremy Corbyn, a man who can’t even make up his mind on Brexit, submitting to a pact with Nicola Sturgeon, and we already know what terms she will demand – another divisive referendum on Scottish independence alongside a second vote on Brexit.

“The financial cost of this to taxpayers up and down the country will be in excess of £150m.

“But the real cost will be much, much higher: the chaos of two referendums in 2020 grinding the country to a halt and the world’s greatest political union reduced to the status of a bargaining chip.”

Paul Robertson, the SNP candidate for Banff and Buchan, rubbished Johnson’s claim.

“We will take no lectures on costs from the Tories given that their disastrous Brexit plans would wipe £9 billion a year from the Scottish economy by the end of the next decade, compared with EU membership – equivalent to around £1600 for everyone living in Scotland.

“That is a price that the people of Scotland must not be forced to pay.”

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The Prime Minister’s trip to Scotland comes the day after Theresa May’s former ambassador to the EU used a lecture in Glasgow University to accuse Johnson of “diplomatic amateurism”.

Sir Ivan Rogers, who was the senior civil servant dealing with Brexit after the EU referendum until his resignation in 2017, said the UK had been mired in a “political shambles” since the 2016 vote.

Rogers also rubbished claims by ministers that a trade deal with the EU can be completed next year.

He said the Prime Minister’s claims a Brexit deal could be concluded swiftly were “diplomatic amateurism dressed up domestically as boldness and decisiveness” and were actually strengthening the EU’s negotiating position.

He added talks breaking down before the end of 2020 – when the future trading relationship is supposed to be settled – “is much likelier than people realise”.