FOR a government which has been clear to state that they are not providing “a running commentary” on their Brexit stance, members of the Tory Party have spent a great deal of time in the past couple of weeks unwittingly unveiling the real principles which will guide the UK’s future negotiating stance for leaving the EU.

It’s fair to say, so far it doesn’t look good news for Scotland.

Last week, Scottish Secretary David Mundell went on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme. Directly contradicting statements made the previous week by DEFRA Minister Andrea Leadsom, he stated unambiguously that devolved issues which were currently dealt with by Europe would be transferred back to Westminster when the UK “took back control” from the EU. This would be the case “whatever the circumstances”, London’s man in Scotland predicted.

In particular, agriculture and fisheries would “self-evidently” be passed to the Scottish Government due to existing devolution in these areas.

Within a week these claims had been shot down in flames from the parliamentary dispatch box by one of his own colleagues, the Brexit Minister David Davis.

When I asked the minister to clarify Mundell’s comments, Hansard records his answer succinctly: “The matter of what powers reside where after we leave the European Union remains to be considered.”

They can’t both be correct. Either Scotland’s needs are central to the Tory government’s approach, or they are not. But the true position is becoming increasingly obvious.

Speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Monday, the Tory MSP Adam Tomkins was clear, stating in relation to Brexit negotiations that, as far as the Tories are concerned, “what we need to do is not get the best deal for Scotland; we need to get the best deal for the whole of the United Kingdom.”

Even where Scottish Tories are concerned, Scotland’s needs are second class.

This is what Theresa May now calls a “red, white and blue Brexit”.

The fact that the Prime Minister has had to fall back on glib, jingoistic Trumpisms to characterise her government’s position on this most serious of matters only underlines her hollow approach.

As far as Brexit goes, it’s clear that Scotland’s needs are increasingly subservient to the need for Theresa May to shore up her weak position with the Europhobic right on her own backbenches. The more Mundell and others are sent into broadcast studios to hold the line, the more they are undermined, contradicted and abandoned by their Whitehall contemporaries.

This chaotic approach is exactly why the UK Government should come clean on their full strategy for negotiations now.

How can we ever be sure that Scotland’s interests are being protected when our own elected Government has been frozen out of the process by Westminster, and the public statements by the Tories’ Secretary of State for Scotland can’t be taken at face value?

That’s why I broadly welcome the motion being brought to Parliament later today, which asks for the Prime Minister to commit to publishing the Government’s plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is invoked. I’ll also be supporting the SNP amendment which calls for a formal role to the devolved administrations in this process, including seeking their agreement before Article 50 is triggered.

This is a deeply serious issue. We need real clarity and not glib soundbites.

We need to know what trading relationship the UK will seek with the remaining members of the EU. In order to plan for the future, exporters are crying out to learn whether we’ll seek to remain part of the customs union. And voters here in Scotland deserve clarity on the role of the Scottish Government in the process.

I have no idea how Brexiteers can kid themselves that “taking back control” from Brussels involves hiding the true intentions of the Government from the voters and the UK Parliament.

The Scottish Government has offered help and support to Whitehall in developing its plans, and will itself publish its full proposals for developing a Scottish deal in due course. Scotland’s position will be clearly set out for all to see. It would be an act of extraordinary hypocrisy for the UK Government to refuse to countenance it out of hand and without officially publishing their own alternative.

Brexit will be the defining issue in the UK’s constitutional future for generations to come. It demands serious attention from each of its governments in London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, and merits full parliamentary scrutiny. It’s absolutely unacceptable for the Tories to cower in the darkness.

Their plans must be brought into the light if we’re to properly protect Scotland’s interests.