‘No place in EU for an independent Scotland’
SCOTLAND will leave the European Union whether or not it becomes an independent country, Theresa May has said.
The Prime Minister seized on comments from the European Commission on Monday which indicated that an independent Scotland would have to apply to join the EU, rather than automatically being a member.
Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said the “Barroso doctrine” continued to apply. Former commission president Jose Manuel Barroso set out the legal view that if one part of an EU country became an independent state, it would have to apply for EU membership.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs May said: “Scotland will be leaving the European Union. It will leave the European Union either as a member of the United Kingdom or were it independent. It’s very clear with the Barroso (doctrine), it would not be a member of the European Union.
“What we need now is to unite, to come together as a country and to ensure that we can get the best deal for the whole of the United Kingdom.”
Mrs May made her view clear as she clashed with SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson at PMQs.
He had previously told The Guardian that a deal could still be done to avert a second independence referendum.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her intention to stage a fresh ballot, but Mr Robertson said the party was “currently ... trying to convince the UK Government to come to a compromise agreement protecting Scotland’s place in Europe”.
He recalled that when Mrs May held talks with the First Minister in July last year, she had “promised to secure a UK-wide approach, an agreement between the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the UK Government, before triggering Article 50”.
Pressing the PM, Mr Robertson demanded: “When will she reach an agreement – not discussions, an agreement – with the Scottish Government before triggering Article 50?”
Mrs May reiterated that her Government will trigger Article 50 to start the formal Brexit process before the end of March, adding there would be “an opportunity for further discussions with the devolved administrations over that period”.
But she told the SNP MP: “He is comparing membership of an organisation we have been a member of for 40 years with our country.
“We have been one country for over 300 years. We have fought together, we have worked together, we have achieved together, and constitutional game-playing must not be allowed to break the deep bonds of our shared history and our future together.”
She added: “We have been in discussions with the Scottish Government and with the other devolved administrations about the interests they have as we prepare, as the United Kingdom Government, to negotiate a deal on behalf of the whole United Kingdom.”
A senior Labour source said that party leader Jeremy Corbyn believed that the decision on whether to hold a second independence referendum should be taken by the Scottish Parliament and that it would be wrong for Westminster to try to block it.