Sturgeon on the spot as May calls referendum bluff
THERESA May yesterday called Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff over a second independence referendum by sticking to her pledge that the whole of Britain will leave the single market.
The Prime Minister insisted that the Brexit deal would be for all the United Kingdom, dismissing SNP demands to remain in the EU’s free trade zone.
Miss Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, said another referendum on independence for Scotland was now a step closer after Mrs May ruled out ‘partial or associate membership or anything that leaves us half in, half out’.
The SNP wants either the UK to remain inside the single market or for Scotland to stay as a member separately. But Mrs May made clear that controlling immigration, striking trade deals and freeing the UK from the European Court of Justice would mean leaving the EU’s free trade zone.
She added that ‘preservation of our precious union is at the heart of everything we do’ and promised to study a paper on Scotland’s future in Europe submitted by the Scottish Government.
However, Miss Sturgeon resurrected her threat of another independence vote, saying that a ‘hard Brexit’ would be ‘ economically catastrophic’. She said: ‘ The UK Government cannot be allowed to take us out of the EU and the single market, regardless of the impact on our economy, jobs, living standards and our reputation as an open, tolerant country, without Scotland having the ability to choose between that and a different future.
‘With her comments today, the Prime Minister has only succeeded in making that choice more likely.’
She added that she was ‘not prepared to allow Scotland’s interests to be steamrollered’.
In a BBC interview, Miss Sturgeon agreed that another vote on independence was ‘all but inevitable’.
Some 62 per cent of Scots voted to remain in the EU last June, with 38 per cent wanting to leave.
But Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, urged Miss Sturgeon to drop talk of another referendum.
She said: ‘Ever since the Brexit vote, the SNP has tried to use the result as an excuse for holding a divisive second referendum on independence. Nicola Sturgeon should now rule a second referendum out and instead work to get the best deal out of Brexit for all of us across the UK.’