Sturgeon and PM set for Brexit talks

Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May are set for a crunch meeting today with days left until the UK’S Brexit divorce deal is set to be finalised.

The First Minister will meet opposition leaders to agree tactics for a vote in the Commons on Mrs May’s deal before face-to-face talks with the Prime Minister.

Yesterday Ms Sturgeon said the Commons could still vote to remain in the single market and customs union, despite both the UK government and the EU insisting the UK’S exit terms had already been agreed and could not be renegotiated.

Addressing an economic forum in Dundee, the First Minister Sturgeon said Mrs May’s EU withdrawal plan risks putting Scotland at a “real competitive disadvantage” due to the potential for a differentiated deal for Northern Ireland.

“We must have a concern about in future being in a situation where companies can choose Belfast and will secure unfettered access to the European single market which they wouldn’t get in Dundee, Glasgow or Edinburgh,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon earlier confirmed SNP MPS would vote against the Prime Minister’s deal. It is not yet clear if the First Minister will meet Jeremy Corbyn, following calls from Scottish Labour figures for the two leaders to hold talks on a Brexit alternative.

In further remarks ahead of her visit to London today, Ms Sturgeon said: “It mustn’t be an option between frying pan or fire, but it is now incumbent on all of us who oppose that false choice to propose a workable alternative.

“Continued, permanent single market and customs union membership for the whole of the UK is such an alternative. The case for that is not only becoming more urgent, it is also becoming more realistic with every day that passes, given the clear parliamentary opposition to the PM’S proposal and to a no-deal outcome.”