SNP says: We’ll win this election
The SNP’S Westminster leader Ian Blackford has defended the party’s push for a snap election in December, arguing that doing nothing posed a greater risk of a no-deal Brexit than going to the polls.
Mr Blackford denied that granting Boris Johnson’s demand for an early election represented a U-turn after he suggested just last Friday that doing so would be “barking mad”.
The Nationalists and the Liberal Democrats, who sent a joint letter to European Council President Donald Tusk setting out their plan to secure a December election through a one-line bill, avoiding the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, said their intervention helped secure the Brexit extension until 31 January that was confirmed by the EU yesterday.
Amid turmoil within the official People’s Vote campaign for a referendum on the terms of Brexit, the parties that have pushed hardest for a public vote on reversing Brexit admitted there was not enough support in the Commons, or enough time to secure it.
The Lib Dems and SNP came under fire from Labour, with shadow Chancellor John Mcdonnell claiming they were “selling out the People’s Vote campaign and the cross party campaign to prevent a no deal”.
And Scottish Labour MP Ged Killen claimed the public had heard “exhausting mental gymnastics from both SNP and Lib Dems” over their support for a snap election, which they were backing because they “calculated that it’s in their narrow party-political interests”.
A Lib Dem source said yesterday that the party would be “making sure that Boris Johnson in some cunning fashion cannot engineer a situation where we crash out of the EU without a deal” as a condition of their support for any early election bid.
And Mr Blackford said an election was “the only realistic way” to stop a no-deal scenario arising in future.
“I’m delighted that Europe has given us the flextension to the end of January,” the SNP MP said.
“This place has got a responsibility to find its way through this. And we have supported and continue to support a People’s Vote, as do the Liberals.
“But at no point has there been a majority for that proposition.
“We would support it if it was there.
“The only realistic [way] we can now stop Boris Johnson delivering Brexit is to change the dynamic in this place. And you can only do that [by] having an election.”
On Friday, Mr Blackford told Channel 4 News that “people are not going to thank you for asking them to come out and vote in a general election when we’re in the middle of winter”, before suggesting a snap election in December would be “barking mad”.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, he said his comments were “reflecting on Boris Johnson trying to deliver an election, having taken us out of the European Union and doing that close to Christmas.
“The SNP has been clear for a period of time that we want an election and that the window was going to close and the window is closing,
“And I want to see this election happening as quickly as possible.
“Of course there are challenges of having an election in winter. I actually don’t think, when it comes to the public, it’s that much of an issue because all the experiences in previous winter elections is that the public have come out [to vote].
“It’s more of a challenge for us in being able to get out and speak to electorate because of the nature of the restricted daylight hours – but that’s life. That’s something you have to accept and you have to get on with it.”
The SNP’S Westminster leader denied that the Nationalists risked becoming the “handmaidens of Brexit” by allowing the Conservatives – who lead Labour by an average of 15 per cent in the polls – the opportunity to win a majority.
“We will win that election in Scotland,” he insisted. “It’s up to others in other parts of the United Kingdom to do the same as well.
“I think we’ve had a lot of discussion about process. We need to get back to the reality of what Brexit means. And I hope that people in other parts of the United Kingdom have a very strong argument as to why we should be rejecting Brexit.
“The flip side is – if we do nothing, what’s going to happen? If you go back to Europe and ask for another extension, at some point Europe are going to say, well why are you wanting an extension, because we’ve given you that time – and what have you done?”
Mr Blackford added: “This is a terrible deal, and you can’t lose sight of the fact that what happened last week was that 19 Labour MPS went through the lobby with the Conservatives to push through the second reading of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
“If we don’t force this election, and the Withdrawal Bill goes through over the course of the next few weeks then that’s it, we’re out of Europe.”