... and she sets up expert group to help make the best of Brexit
RUTH Davidson yesterday pledged to make the best of Brexit as she launched a group that will consider how Scotland can benefit from leaving the European Union.
The Scottish Tory leader said that those who campaigned for a Remain vote in the run-up to June’s referendum now have a ‘duty’ to ‘roll up our sleeves and seek out the opportunities where they arise’.
She admitted that some of the warnings about leaving the EU during the campaign may have been ‘overblown’, and she criticised the Scottish Government for using the vote to try to boost support for independence.
Miss Davidson made the comments in London yesterday as she launched an expert panel, featuring former CBI Scotland director Sir Iain McMillan and ex-Scotch Whisky Association chief executive Gavin Hewitt, to advise her on the ‘risks and opportunities’ of Scotland’s future outside of the EU.
The Tory leader, who was a prominent Remain campaigner, said: ‘I speak as an “Inner”, but the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has already said that Brexit means we could now “lead the way in developing fit-forpurpose management that will enable fishing to sustainably develop”.
‘Whether that actually happens can’t be answered now. It will take time – after all, we haven’t considered these issues in isolation for decades. But I think that even politicians like me who wanted to Remain now have a duty to roll up our sleeves and seek out the opportunities where they arise.’
Miss Davidson said that leaving the EU will lead to ‘a whole new set of power lines to support the transfer of authority from Brussels to Britain’, including in the farming and fisheries industries. And she insisted that Remain campaigners must ‘respect’ the decision of a majority of people in the UK.
Referring to her new expert group, she said: ‘I will ask them to report to me on how best they believe Brexit can deliver for Scotland and, crucially, for the entire UK, because we believe Scotland’s interests are not served by constantly trying to pick apart the UK.
‘We believe that Scotland’s best interests are served by ensuring the strength and durability of the entire United Kingdom of which we are a key part.’
A spokesman for Brexit minister Mike Russell said: ‘This is a sell-out of enormous proportions even for Ruth Davidson and her increasingly Right-wing Tories.
‘Only three months ago she branded the claims of the Brexit campaign as lies that would be deeply damaging to our economy and our society. With this U-turn it is clear the Tories simply cannot be trusted to protect Scotland’s interests.
‘Scotland’s Tories are simply acting as a smoke screen for a UK Tory Government that cannot answer a single question about what Brexit means and who are putting jobs, investment and Scotland’s economy at risk.