May rejects SNP ‘deal’ on Brexit
THERESA May has rejected Nicola Sturgeon’s demand that Scotland gets a separate Brexit deal to the rest of the UK.
The Prime Minister does not believe Scotland can remain a member of the single market if the UK leaves, her spokesman signalled yesterday.
She is also opposed to Miss Sturgeon’s demands for a mass handover of new powers, including the transfer of new controls on immigration, from Westminster to Holyrood.
The comments will spark another row between the Scottish and UK Governments, with the First Minister warning at the SNP conference last week that she will call an independence referendum if her demands are not met.
Miss Sturgeon is due to meet Mrs May in London next week to discuss the UK’s approach to Brexit negotiations.
But the move by Downing Turn to Page 10
Street to toughen its opposition to a special deal for Scotland makes it almost inevitable that many of Miss Sturgeon’s proposals will be rejected.
Asked if she believed it was in any way feasible for one part of the UK to remain in the single market while the others parts left, a spokesman for Mrs May said the Prime Minister had made it clear that the UK Government wanted to ‘involve the devolved administrations of the United Kingdom as we prepare for the negotiations’ – but that ultimately ‘this was a decision taken by the people of the United Kingdom’.
She added: ‘We are members as the United Kingdom and that is how we will approach leaving.’
While she insisted that the Prime Minister wanted to hear about the concerns of the devolved governments and others about negotiations, the spokesman said that ‘this will be an approach of the United Kingdom’.
Asked if it was feasible for Scotland to have powers over immigration as part of a bespoke package, as suggested by Miss Sturgeon, she said: ‘There is a very clear delineation between the issues that are reserved and the issues that are devolved.
‘What the Prime Minister does want to do is to work constructively with partners across the UK to secure the best deal for it as we leave the EU.
‘The PM would need to be convinced of the reasons as to why we should change that approach.
‘What we should be focusing on at the moment and prioritising is how we work together to get the best deal for the United Kingdom as we leave the European Union.’
At the SNP’s annual conference in Glasgow last week, Miss Sturgeon made it clear she would press ahead with another independence referendum if the UK failed to protect Scotland’s membership of the single market.
She suggested that she would put forward formal proposals to Mrs May demanding that Scotland would have additional powers on issues such as immigration and international trade.
With the UK appearing to be on course for a ‘hard Brexit’, Miss Sturgeon wants a special deal for Scotland which would protect its membership of the single market.
During a television interview on Sunday, Miss Sturgeon insisted: ‘What I’m saying is I want to try to keep Scotland in the single market and I’m going to try a whole variety of different ways to do that.
‘But if none of that works, then I think Scotland would have the right to choose whether it wanted to be taken out of the single market or whether it wanted to follow a different path.’
Earlier this month, Mrs May told the Conservative Party conference that there would be ‘no opt-out from ’ and that she would never allow ‘divisive Nationalism to undermine the precious Union’.
She added: ‘We voted in the referendum as one United Kingdom and we will leave the European Union as one United Kingdom.’
Yesterday, a spokesman for the First Minister said: ‘The First Minister was given a clear undertaking by the Prime Minister when they met in Edinburgh in July that she would consider proposals we bring forward to protect Scotland’s place in Europe.
‘The UK Government has now been reported as pursuing a special deal for the City of London – spending billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash in the process.
‘And if special arrangements can be made for the banking and finance sector, they can be made for Scotland, which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU.’