MAY LIED OVER BREXIT DEAL
As leaders rubber stamp deal to quit EU, Sturgeon describes PM’s plea to British people as desperate and untrue
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday accused the Prime Minister of “desperate” tactics and said she was lying about her Brexit deal as it was signed off by Brussels.
The First Minister rounded on Theresa May after the leaders of the 27 countries remaining in the EU took 38 minutes to rubber stamp the proposals.
May had earlier published an open letter encouraging the British public to get behind the deal as she set the scene for a bruising battle to win support in the House of Commons.
The 800-word message said that the result of the EU referendum in 2016 would be honoured and that freedom of movement would end.
It also stated that the UK would “take back control” of laws and money which, it claimed, could be spent on the NHS.
But Sturgeon repeated her calls for alternatives such as staying in the single market and customs union or holding a second referendum.
The SNP leader tweeted: “I don’t say this lightly but almost nothing in this desperate letter is true.
“This is a bad deal, driven by the PM’s self-defeating red lines and continual pandering to the right of her own party.
“Parliament should reject it and back a better alternative – SM/CU (single market/customs union) or #PeoplesVote.”
May has two weeks to persuade MPs to back her deal after 90 Tories – and Northern Ireland’s 10 DUP MPs – signalled they will block it. Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems are also opposed.
EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned that if the deal agreed with May’s team is defeated, the EU will not budge. He said: “I am totally convinced that this is the only deal possible.
“Those who think by rejecting the deal that they would have a better deal will be disappointed in the first seconds after the rejection of this deal.”
May said the public were fed up of wrangling over Brexit.
She added: “It will be one of the most significant votes Parliament has held for many years.
“On it will depend whether we
move forward together into a brighter future or open the door to yet more division and uncertainty.
“The British people don’t want to spend any more time arguing about Brexit.
“They want a good deal done that fulfils the vote and allows us to come together again as a country.
“I will take this deal back to the House of Commons, confident we have achieved the best deal available and full of optimism about the future of our country.”
At a news conference in Brussels, May also claimed the agreement would protect the integrity of the UK and not remove Gibraltar from the “UK family”.
It was a reference to a lastminute wrangle with Spain over the territory, which Britain has run since it was captured from Spain in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession.
SNP Brexit secretary Mike Russell insisted May’s deal “does not work for Scotland”.
He added: “It takes Scotland out of the EU against our democratic wishes, it removes us from the single market against our economic interests, and it would put us at a competitive economic disadvantage compared to Northern Ireland.
“The only thing it guarantees is years of damaging uncertainty, which will cost jobs and hit living standards and, by ending freedom of movement, will make it harder to attract the staff we need for our NHS.”
Scottish Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw, who is covering Ruth Davidson’s maternity leave, said May had “shown remarkable tenacity and resilience” to secure the deal.
He added: “As with every negotiation, nobody has got everything they wanted.
“But this deal does offer the prospect of delivering Brexit and allowing the country to move on.”