Sturgeon says Scots could go it alone on Brexit deals

The Scottish Government is “actively” working on possible stand-alone deals with the European Union after Brexit in key areas such as law and order as well as education that may exclude the rest of the UK.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed her officials are “looking very carefully” at arrangements which would allow Scotland to remain in key EU programmes like the Erasmus student exchange scheme and the Horizon 2020 research initiative, along with crime-fighting initiatives.

The Scottish Government published a paper a year ago setting out the prospect of a standalone Scottish deal with the EU

post-brexit. Among the scenarios examined was whether Scotland could remain in the single market while the UK leaves.

“That was dismissed by the UK government as impossible,” Ms Sturgeon said as she took questions following a speech at the David Hume Institute in Edinburgh last night. But although I know it’s not their preferred option, they have contemplated that for Northern Ireland if that’s what it takes to resolve some of the issues in the island of Ireland. So we know that those differential arrangements are not impossible.

“So we are exploring and investigating all of that.

Short of a blanket differential arrangement, there are things we’re looking very carefully at – arrangements

“Could Scotland stay within, even if the UK doesn’t, Erasmus for example, Horizon 2020, some criminal justice elements too? So we are actively exploring all of those things. We mustn’t just accept that there is an inevitability of a really hard, damaging Brexit.”

The Erasmus scheme allows students to take up part of their studies in partner EU countries. Horizon 2020 – Europe’s Research and Innovation programme – has made tens of billions of pounds in funding available in 2014 to 2020 for cuttingedge projects. There are areas in justice where the EU has responsibility, but the Scottish Government could wish to remain part of crime-fighting agencies like Europol and stay part of the European arrest warrant.

Ms Sturgeon also insisted the House of Commons could block a “hard Brexit”. The First Minister said the “only sensible post Brexit position” was for the UK to remain in Europe’s single market and the customs union. The EU referendum in 2016 “gave no mandate for leaving the single market”, she added.

A Scottish Government report yesterday suggested leaving the EU without a trade deal in place would wipe £12.7 billion a year from Scotland’s economy by 2030.