SCOTLAND'S Brexit secretary has hit out at Brexit “madness” after a Scotland Office minister said trade tariffs were not “the end of the world”.
Tory MP David Duguid played down the cost of Brexit in an interview with the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland, telling the programme that while shoppers “may not get the specific shape of pasta you like”, reports of potential fruit and veg shortages are exaggerated.
He said that while "there's nothing stopping businesses relocating to anywhere in the world” from Scotland, he thinks it's unlikely that new barriers to trade would see firms move their operations.
And the UK Government minister cited a conversation with a seafood processor for proof of why fears on tariffs are “overstated”, saying that the man “suggested that the tariffs being proposed would be no more or less than currency fluctuations that would be experienced over a six month period”.
But Scotland's Europe Secretary Michael Russell told the programme Duguid is talking “nonsense”, with tariffs on lamb potentially set at 60%. He said: “That's not currency fluctuation, that's disaster.”
On suggestions that Westminster could deploy the navy in a post-Brexit fishing war, Russell called that "utterly insane", adding: “If we're talking about selling fish to people and we're trying to force them out of the waters then they'll stop buying and we'll be in desperate trouble.”
Calling for “a very calm approached to a crisis that has been made by the UK Government”, he went on: “This is insanity compared to where we were and what we could do and what Scotland can do as an independent member of the EU, because that is now the centre stage issue — how on earth could we get away from this madness?”
The comments came before Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to extend trade talks.
Responding to that news in an official statement, he said: “It is now time for the crippling uncertainty over the future of our trading relationship with the European Union to come to an end.
“Whatever the outcome of these protracted talks we know there will be very significant damage to Scotland’s economy and society because of the UK Government’s decision to leave the transition period on December 31 in the middle of a pandemic and a recession.
“But we also know that the worst outcome of all would be the disastrous impact of a no deal Brexit which would lead to significant tariffs and the UK Government must rule this out immediately.”
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