Sturgeon ‘betrayal’ over fisheries

Theresa May has accused Nicola Sturgeon of “betraying” Scotland by seeking to keep the UK in the EU single market.

In her speech in at the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister singled out the First Minister for criticism, claiming the SNP was ready to sell out Scotland’s fishermen.

The Nationalists are fighting to keep the UK in the European market, but say they would seek to overhaul the controversial Common Fisheries Policy that imposes quotas on fishermen, and is also blamed for wasteful discards and the scrapping of fishing fleets.

“With the UK’S biggest fishing fleets based in Scotland, let me say this to Nicola Sturgeon,” Mrs May said. “You claim to stand up for Scotland, but you want to lock Scottish fishermen into the CFP forever. That’s not ‘Stronger for Scotland’, it’s a betrayal of Scotland.”

The Prime Minister also turned her fire on campaigners for a second EU referendum on the terms of the UK’S Brexit deal, after Labour opened the door to holding another vote at its conference last week. “There are plenty of prominent people in British politics – in Parliament and out of it – who want to stop Brexit in its tracks,” she said.

“Their latest plan is to hold a second referendum. They call it a ‘People’s Vote’. But we had the people’s vote. The people voted to leave.”

Labour MP Ian Murray said Mrs May was “playing fast and loose with the future of the Union by committing to a hard Brexit”.

“Despite her speech, support for a People’s Vote is growing by the day, and anyone who wants to keep the Union together should get behind that,” he said.