Brexit: my plan to secure the best deal for Scotland

SCOTTISH BREXIT MINISTER

SBY MIKE RUSSELL

COTLAND has benefited from membership of the European Union for decades and I believe that EU membership remains the best option for Scotland. However, those benefits are under threat as a result of a situation not of our making. As a nation, working with others, we must find the right way to counter that threat and secure the best possible deal in the coming negotiations both in Europe and at home.

The First Minister has been clear that we will explore all options to protect Scotland’s vital interests. An independence referendum must be included in those options. The First Minister set out during the summer what those interests are – democracy, economic prosperity (which is, we believe, largely contingent on continued membership of the single market), social protection, solidarity, and influence. They are not just our starting points for discussion, they must underpin any agreement.

In my new post, my first task has been to press the UK Government for urgent clarification on how it is going to deliver on the Prime Minister’s commitment to full involvement for Scotland in the process around Article 50 and negotiations with the EU. Not only did she assure the First Minister of that commitment when they met in July but last weekend she said Scotland would be “fully involved” and “fully engaged”.

We disagree fundamentally with the decision to leave the EU and Scotland did not vote to leave. But we have an interest not just in making that point but also in trying to get the UK into the most sensible and beneficial position we can. That needs us to be at the table. It needs the discussions to start now.

In those discussions one of the first priorities must be to protect Scotland’s place in the single market which is a structure for fair and equal trade that benefits all sectors of the Scottish economy. It is much more than simply a place to buy and sell, and without it our workers would be less well protect- Mike Russell, Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland’s Place in Europe ed and our companies far less able to export and set up across the continent.

Free movement of labour is at the heart of the single market and Scotland is not full up.

We benefit from that free movement and, of course, many Scots continue to use it to live and work in Europe.