May must ‘open her mind’ after

● Sturgeon calls on Prime Minister to stop ‘bullying’ MPS ● Call for ‘change of course’ in wake of second vote defeat

The Prime Minister must accept defeat on her Brexit deal, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday as she called on Theresa May to consider a second referendum and to stop “bullying” MPS into backing her proposals.

The First Minister said the under-seige Prime Minister needed to “change course and open her mind to the right way forward”.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking during First Minister’s Questions, only 48 hours after MPS again defeated Mrs May’s withdrawal agreement in a second meaningful vote in the Commons.

There was a further defeat for the government on Wednesday night when MPS rejected the possibility of a nodeal withdrawal from the EU.

Ms Sturgeon said “The Prime Minister’s deal has been defeated overwhelmingly in the House of Commons, not just once, but twice.

“It is time for her to accept that defeat and open her mind now to an alternative way forward. Let’s get no deal properly off the table. Let’s seek a lengthy extension to allow this issue to go back to the people.”

Ms Sturgeon was speaking after being pressed on comments her Brexit secretary Mike Russell made on Twitter after Scottish Tory MPS voted with Mrs May on Tuesday.

Mr Russell hit out at the “#Ragmanroll” of Conservatives who had supported the “Prime Minister’s awful deal, which would cripple Scotland & their constituencies”.

The term is used to refer to Scottish nobility and gentry in the 13th century who pledged allegiance to King Edward I of England.

Scottish Conservative interim leader Jackson Carlaw called on the First Minister to disociate herself from the “inflammatory smear”, saying Mr Russell had “accused those who backed the Prime NICOLA STURGEON First Minister Minister’s deal as being traitors to Scotland”.

He said: “There are many of us in Scotland, in politics and outside, who do back the Prime Minister’s deal. Will the First Minister at least accept we think it is what is best for our country and we do so in all good faith?”

Ms Sturgeon said: “Frankly it is deluded for anyone to suggest there is a majority support across Scotland for the Prime Minister’s deal.

“There is not support for leaving the EU, there is certainly not support for leaving on the basis of such a profoundly bad deal.”

She added: “The government led by his party is in meltdown, is a shambles and is taking this country ever closer to the cliff edge. I spent more than two years suggesting compromise to the Prime Minister, single market, customs union, compromise. That was cast aside, ignored and dismissed as every single vote in this Parliament on the issue has been cast aside, ignored and dismissed by the Tory government.

“The way forward now is to put this issue back to the people. Parliament has failed to resolve this issue and if Parliament can’t decide, the people should. That is what I think is the way forward. And it is a better way forward than the Prime Minister trying to bully the House of Commons into accepting a bad deal. She should accept defeat, change course and open her mind to the right way forward.”

Ms Sturgeon also branded Scottish Secretary’s David Mundell’s abstention on the no-deal Brexit vote at Westminster a “disgrace”. Mr Mundell had previously expressed his opposition to no deal, but abstained from the vote.

And while Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard also criticised the Tories, Ms Sturgeon asked him to use his influence with Jeremy Corbyn to get the Labour leader “firmly behind the option of a second EU referendum”.

She said: “Because if he would come off the fence, then I think that option would become not just the best one, but the most likely next step.”

Holyrood later heard from Mr Russell that he would soon bring back to the chamber a proposal on how to take forward the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with Brexit secretary Mike Russell at her side, hit out at the failure of

“The way forward now is to put this issue back to the people. Parliament has failed to resolve this issue and if Parliament can’t ... the people should”

Scottish councils say UK ‘isn’t playing by the rules’ with bid to control new funds

Scotland’s local authorities have accused the UK government of “not playing by the rules” by proposing to bypass the Barnett formula with a new £1.6 billion for local councils.

Cosla president Alison Evison said there were “clearly established responsibilities under devolution which must be upheld” after The Scotsman revealed the Treasury is preparing to allow Scottish councils to lodge bids directly with Whitehall for the new funding.

A new £1.6bn Stronger Towns Fund designed to pump investment into economically depressed communities will invite bids directly from local councils, including in Scotland.

A £1bn pot from the fund will be ring fenced for com-

munities in England, with most of that money already earmarked for areas of the north that voted for Brexit. It prompted claims from critics the fund is a “bung” for Labour MPS to back Theresa May’s deal.

Additional local government spending in England normally results in a windfall for devolved administrations through the Barnett formula, which calculates the Scottish Government’s budget based on population.

However, a Treasury spokeswoman said the government believes “making the £600 million biddable is the way that those regions can be funded”. The spokeswoman said the priority was “to

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