UK govt will win over Scotland with good Brexit deal, says minister

LONDON: The British government is confident it can seal a good divorce deal with the European Union which will win over the people of Scotland but may never please its pro-independence ruling party, Scottish minister David Mundell said.

Mundell, Britain’s secretary of state for Scotland, said the government was ‘taking note’ of warnings that Scottish leaders are gearing up for a vote which could split the more than three-century-old union between Scotland and England.

But the British government does not believe another vote on independence should take place, he said.

“We are aware and take note of what the Scottish government say and do. It would be complacent not to do that,” he said in an interview at his office overlooking a parade ground just steps from Prime Minister Theresa May’s official residence.

Mundell, the only elected Conservative lawmaker for Scotland in the British parliament, said the government wanted a good Brexit deal for the whole country, but did not say whether there were particular aspects that would soothe Scottish concerns.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who became leader in 2014 after an unsuccessful referendum to break away and whose Scottish National Party holds 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats, has increased the volume on demands that Scotland must have a vote if the country is forced into a “hard Brexit”.

She says Scotland should have a chance to decide its future because, unlike England and Wales, it voted to stay in the EU at a June referendum and to maintain preferential access to the bloc’s single market and free movement of labour.

Sturgeon also wants to make sure Edinburgh has a say over fisheries and farming policy — areas where Britain might look for compromise in EU talks.