NICOLA Sturgeon has slammed a “disastrous Brexit outcome” after it was reported that a multi-million-pound Scottish export has been excluded from a trade deal between the UK and EU.
According to the BBC the deal, expected to be officially announced this morning, will not include seed potatoes in the list of UK crops allowed into the EU from January 1. Exports of Scottish seed potatoes to the EU are worth millions every year.
This is a disastrous Brexit outcome for Scottish farmers...and like all other aspects of Brexit, foisted on Scotland against our will. https://t.co/jWruc1RL46
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 24, 2020
The First Minister tweeted this morning: “This is a disastrous Brexit outcome for Scottish farmers ... and like all other aspects of Brexit, foisted on Scotland against our will.”
Scotland voted to Remain in the EU by 62% back in 2016, and recent polling has shown the percentage of people who would prefer Scotland to be a member of the bloc has changed little in four years.
The SNP’s food and rural affairs spokesperson angrily criticised the UK Government for “selling Scotland’s farming and fishing industry out”.
MP Deidre Brock said: "If these reports are true, it would be a terrible negotiating failure on the part of the Tory Government - and a devastating blow to an extremely valuable part of Scotland's booming farming industry.
"Scottish seed potato exports to the EU are worth millions each year - but that is being threatened by Boris Johnson's plans for an extreme Tory Brexit that Scotland didn't vote for.
"It is clear that the Tories are selling Scotland's farming and fishing industry out and planning a total betrayal of our rural communities - with a hard Brexit that will cause serious and lasting damage to exports, jobs, living standards, businesses and the economy.
"Scotland has been completely ignored by Westminster throughout the Brexit process.
“The only outcome possible at this late stage is a very thin and bad deal. It is clearer than ever that the only way to properly protect Scotland's interests and our place in Europe is to become an independent country."
READ MORE: 'A devastating blow': Brexit deal set to fail Scotland's potato industry
Meanwhile, Hannah Bardell, the SNP MP for Livingston, added: "I wasn’t aware of the importance of seed potatoes until I spent three years working in the north east, meeting many farmers who exported them.
"This is devastating and just another reminder of the rank incompetence of Boris and the destruction of Brexit."
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