SNP threat of Brexit chaos

They’ll reject ANY deal Mrs May gets but back second vote on EU

NICOLA Sturgeon has revealed her party will reject Theresa May’s Brexit plan and back a second referendum on leaving – despite admitting that a no-deal outcome could lead to chaos for Scotland.

The SNP leader confirmed her MPs – whose votes could prove crucial when Westminster gives its verdict on the EU agreement – will reject any plan that stops short of full membership of the single market and customs union.

Miss Sturgeon also said the Nationalists would ‘undoubtedly’ support calls for a second referendum that gives people the opportunity to stop Brexit.

Critics said the comments confirm that the SNP is ‘the party of the neverendum’ in relation to the EU and independence.

Speaking yesterday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We’ve always said our bottom line is membership of the single market and customs union.

‘I cannot envisage the SNP MPs voting for something that doesn’t contain that. Don’t forget, Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.’ She said it looked unlikely that any deal with the EU would involve membership of the single market and customs union – adding that a no-deal Brexit would be ‘extremely damaging’ and could mean medicine and food shortages, grounded flights and gridlock at ports, which she called ‘unthinkable’.

Miss Sturgeon said MPs being offered a choice by Mrs May between ‘fire or frying pan’ would increase the likelihood of a second Brexit vote.

She added: ‘Sensible MPs of all parties should come together and look at the alternatives.

‘No doubt calls for a second referendum would grow in those circumstances, and I’ve said before we wouldn’t stand in the way of a second referendum, a so-called “people’s vote”. SNP MPs would undoubtedly vote for that.’

But Miss Sturgeon also said: ‘We would, of course, want to talk to people about how we ensure that Scotland doesn’t end up in the same position all over again, when we voted to remain in the EU but find ourselves facing exit completely against our will.’

Meanwhile, Nationalist Westminster leader Ian Blackford appeared to suggest that SNP backing for a so-called ‘people’s vote’ could be conditional on other parties agreeing to back a second independence referendum if Scotland votes to Remain and the rest of the UK backs Leave.

He told Sky’s Ridge on Sunday programme: ‘In the 2016 referendum, Scotland overwhelmingly voted to stay within the EU by 62 to 38 per cent.

‘We can’t be dragged out of the single market and customs union against our will and what we are saying is, if there is to be a people’s vote then we need to make sure that our position is protected.

‘We must have the right that if we are being dragged out of Europe, that if we’re being dragged out of the single market and the customs union, that we have that ability to determine our own future.’

He added: ‘There was a huge demonstration yesterday in Edinburgh – we’re talking about up to 100,000 people that marched in support of independence.

‘There are polls out this morning that show a majority of the Scottish people would support an independent Scotland in the likelihood of a hard Brexit. People are expressing a very clear opinion that they want their rights as European citizens protected.’

Adam Tomkins, Scottish Tory constitutional relations spokesman, said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon today confirmed the SNP is the party of the neverendum – not just in Scotland but across the UK, too.

‘Despite welcome progress between the UK and the EU on a Brexit deal, it’s now clear beyond doubt that she’ll keep pushing for a second independence referendum, no matter what.

‘Not content with taking Scotland backwards, she wants to drag the entire UK through a second referendum on Brexit, too.

‘All the while, school standards are slipping, hospital waiting times are being missed and NHS boards are having to be bailed out. Is it too much ask that Scotland’s governing party uses its time in Glasgow this week to talk about ways of improving Scotland?’

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie welcomed Miss Sturgeon’s backing for a second Brexit vote.

But regarding Mr Blackford’s comments, he said: ‘This is the shoddy exploitation of Europe for SNPs own independence agenda.’

‘Exploitation of EU for own agenda’

NICOLA Sturgeon painted an unremittingly grim picture of a no-deal exit from the EU, with Scotland suffering food and medicine shortages, with planes grounded and ports log-jammed.

Yet no sooner had she outlined this nightmare vision than she was committing her party to a course of action that makes a no-deal Brexit more, not less, likely.

Miss Sturgeon declared that her 35 MPs would oppose anything short of staying in the single market and customs union – something not even on the table and entirely at odds with the Brexit vote.

So no matter what Theresa May wrings from the negotiations with the EU, it will never be good enough for the SNP.

This is political opportunism at its most cynical, with the Nationalists ignoring the potential damage to the country purely to create problems for Mrs May.

Miss Sturgeon also said her party could back calls for another vote on Brexit. This sudden concern that the people’s voice be heard sits oddly with her SNP’s steadfast refusal to heed the majority who voted No to independence in 2014.

How telling that MP Joanna Cherry was arrogantly mapping out how to break up Britain without another referendum for conference delegates in Glasgow yesterday.

Westminster leader Ian Blackford was also dropping hints that the Nationalists might even try to tie support for the socalled ‘people’s vote’ on Brexit to a second vote on independence.

If the SNP could monetise presumption and effrontery, we would be in clover.

It thinks the public have forgotten that it barely campaigned for Remain and a great many Nationalist supporters voted Leave.

The party also believes Miss Sturgeon when she says independence is ‘inevitable’ while she strings along her die-hard separatists with vague promises of a call for Indyref 2 maybe this month, maybe next, maybe before Christmas…

Miss Sturgeon knows her own so-called Growth Commission offered up a bleak picture of an independent Scotland’s economic prospects.

The SNP’s woeful record in government makes independence still less attractive.

It was significant, too, that with all Scotland’s woes, the big conference idea from Justice Minister Humza Yousaf was a possible – almost certainly unenforceable – outlawing of wolf-whistling.

Scotland needs a stuttering economy strengthened. We need the slide in skills among school pupils reversed. We need the shambles of the NHS sorted out and Police Scotland made fit for purpose. We need better transport links.

What is not needed is constant agitation for independence and a dangerous attempt to use Brexit for political advantage.