EVEN if Theresa May can convince the EU to back every measure in her keynote Brexit speech, Scotland will still be in a worse position than it is just now.
In a statement after May's big speech, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she couldn’t get her head round how the Tory leader could make so many positive noises about the benefits of being close to Europe while pursuing a hard Brexit.
The SNP leader said: “The Prime Minister seemed to spend a lot of her speech setting out the benefits of EU membership and close European co-operation, making her determination to pursue a hard Brexit all the more bizarre.
“She accepted that access to the Single Market – the world’s biggest marketplace and one around eight times bigger than the UK’s alone – would be reduced, yet said she would leave the Single Market and Customs Union anyway, even though her own government’s analysis shows this will cost jobs and cut living standards.
“The EU has already rejected the Prime Minister’s wish-list approach but even if she can somehow persuade them to adopt everything in this speech we will still get a worse deal than we have today. She identified some of the contradictions in her government's position, but did little to resolve them.
"Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and it is time for the UK Government to take seriously the proposals we have made to keep Scotland and the whole of the UK in the Single Market and Customs Union.
“It is regrettable that the UK Government has consistently failed to engage properly with the Scottish and other devolved governments and it is essential we now have a meaningful role in the forthcoming negotiations.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator welcomed the speech, tweeting that it had brought some “clarity about UK leaving Single Market and Customs Union and recognition of trade-offs”. It would, he added, inform the next round of discussions on the implementation period.
However, Guy Verhofstadt, the Brexit negotiator from the European Parliament said May had failed to “move beyond vague aspirations”.
“We can only hope that serious proposals have been put in the post," he said. "While we welcome the call for a deep and special partnership this cannot be achieved by putting a few extra cherries on the Brexit cake.”
Manfred Weber, who leads the European Parliament’s largest group of MEPs, the EPP, and who is a close ally of German leader Angela Merkel tweeted: “After what I have heard today I am even more concerned. I don’t see how we could reach an agreement on Brexit if the UK Government continues to bury its head in the sand like this.”
But May’s speech, with its plea for compromise, was aimed as much at her own party as it was Brussels.
Sarah Wollaston, a pro-EU Tory, said: ”This was a pragmatic and positive speech & of course I hope that EU negotiators listen & recognise the benefits for both sides in flexibility. But if PM’s approach to customs partnership is rejected & a refusal to allow sector by sector deals, we are no further on. No plan B."
Boris Johnson said: “The PM’s Mansion House speech sets out a clear and convincing vision for our future partnership with the EU. We will remain extremely close to our EU friends and partners - but able to innovate, to set our own agenda, to make our own laws and to do ambitious free trade deals around the world.”
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said that “May's shambolic handling of Brexit” had sent the UK “hurtling towards a constitutional crisis with damaging consequences in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
He added: "From failing to protect the devolution settlement to the disgraceful mishandling of Northern Ireland's future this is a Prime Minister who has endangered the Union by failing to stand up to her own right wing backbenchers."
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