Former minister says he secretly voted for Brexit

europe: SNP’s Alex Neil reveals he and fellow party MSPs oppose EU membership

A former Scottish Government minister has revealed that he and a number of other SNP MSPs secretly voted to leave the European Union.

Alex Neil, who served as health secretary under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, told the Daily Telegraph he had decided to back Brexit 10 days before the referendum on June 23.

His position is in stark contrast to the strong support the party and leader Ms Sturgeon have expressed for remaining in the EU.

Mr Neil told the newspaper his decision had been influenced by the growth of right-wing parties in Europe, the way Greece and Portugal had been treated by the bloc and the tone of the Remain campaign.

He said: “In the last 10 days of the campaign I was persuaded and (former chancellor) George Osborne just tipped me over with his emergency budget. I saw the scaremongering and there was no way I was going to endorse it.

“There’s a number of my colleagues who have spoken to me privately who did the same. They don’t want to broadcast it. They were betwixt and between, and they voted Leave.”

The Airdrie and Shotts MSP, who stepped down from the cabinet after May’s Holyrood election, also warned that tying Scottish independence to EU membership risked alienating supporters.

He said: “A proportion may not well vote for independence. Anecdotally, a lot of them have hardened their position.

“A lot of them don’t understand why we don’t want to be run by London and would rather be run by Brussels.”