A BILLIONAIRE businessman has been criticised for comparing Scotland with Ireland on the BBC in a discussion about economics.

Tom Hunter - who is estimated to be worth around £700 million - complained about six income tax bands being brought in in Scotland while on the panel for Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.

As part of his commentary, he claimed Ireland was going to run a £60 billion surplus in the next three years while Scotland was going to run a £30bn deficit. He said this came from an investigation he did with Oxford Economics.

But the entrepreneur has been slated for making the comparison when Scotland is not an independent country and has a block grant handed to it by Westminster.

READ MORE: Carol Vorderman clarifies 'misleading' post about Nicola Sturgeon WhatsApps

Hunter said: “We agree the people with the broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest burden, but that is happening in Scotland. 11% of the Scottish taxpayers pay 65% of the whole income tax collected in Scotland.

“Where we absolutely disagree is I want more wealth creators, I want more people in Scotland starting and growing their businesses.

“We did an investigation with Oxford Economics about the Irish and Ireland is going to run a £60bn surplus in the next three years. Scotland is going to run a £30bn deficit.

“So I think let’s create more and we don’t get that by having six different bands of income tax. That’s double what we have here in England and that’s ridiculous.

“The people in the business community who I listen to don’t believe this government has their back and that is a very bad situation.”

Humza Yousaf had said earlier in the programme the majority of taxpayers will pay less tax in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK and those that are being asked to pay more will be helping the Government to continue to provide things like free tuition and prescriptions.

SNP MP Gavin Newlands said Hunter was comparing “apples with oranges” in his assessment of Scotland and Ireland.

He tweeted: “Tom Hunter, unchallenged, comparing apples with oranges.

“Ireland is a small independent EU state with full control of all tax and spend powers.

“Scotland is a small country ripped from EU with more economic assets, but whose macroeconomic policies and block grant are decided in London.”

Others took to social media to point out the key fact Hunter had missed in his complaints.

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf: Keir Starmer must 'respect' Scotland on independence

One user said: “Dearie me Tom Hunter, entrepreneur and businessman – comparing Ireland with Scotland. Missed out Ireland’s independence and they’re in the EU.”

Another added: “Tom Hunter comparing an independent Ireland’s economy to Scotland’s is a level disingenuousness I wasn’t prepared for this morning.

“As he is well aware most of Scotland’s economy is run from England. Funny how he didn’t mention Brexit.”

Former finance secretary Kate Forbes said in December the UK Government’s cuts to Scotland’s Budget were “brutal” for Scotland’s infrastructure, adding that Scotland was wearing a “straitjacket” fiscally.

She said in a column for The National: “It makes no fiscal sense whatsoever to partially control income tax, with only the rates and bands under review.

“It is financially impossible to budget on the basis of your relative performance to another, very different economy. And yet that is what we expect the Scottish Government to do.”