THE Deputy First Minister will today warn the SNP’s conference that Britain faces a new winter of discontent because of the deepening disaster of Brexit.

John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary responsible for re-building Scotland from the damage caused by the pandemic, will also highlight attempts by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to dismantle devolution – removing powers from Holyrood and trying to dictate how money is spent in devolved areas.

He will tell delegates: “They will cut our budget, diverting funding to pork barrel, pet-projects in Tory held seats.

“They will plaster the country with Union flags. And they take every opportunity they have to undermine the Scottish Government ... but the problem they will face with their muscular unionism is that they do not have the brains to match the brawn.”

The Deputy First Minister will reserve his most scathing criticism of Prime Minister’s Government for forcing through a hard Brexit’s in the middle of the Covid crisis.

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Swinney will tell the conference: “There is perhaps no greater example of how the Union has failed Scotland than the sorry saga of Brexit.

“Despite the warnings, against the will of the people of Scotland, and in the grips of a pandemic, the Tories pressed ahead with the hardest of breaks.

“Boris Johnson once spoke of Brexit and the ‘sunlit meadows beyond’, but the reality he has delivered is food rotting in the fields because there is no one there to pick it.

He went on: “The end of freedom of movement, and the draconian clampdown of migration from the EU has been a disaster for the economy – not just here in Scotland but the whole of the UK.

“Perhaps the most obvious example is the empty shelves in our supermarkets. But staff shortages are beginning to bite across the economy.

“Last month we saw the quite extraordinary news that the NHS in England had to tell GPs to cancel blood tests due to an acute shortage of supplies. Every sector will feel the chill wind brought on by Brexit. And there is no end in sight. The Tories are unwilling and unable to take the simple steps required to fix the problem they have created. The UK is facing a winter of discontent and Westminster isn’t working.”

Recent months have seen photographs of empty supermarket shelves in Scotland and report that the Christmas supply chain for food and toys will be severely disrupted as a result or Brexit related issues.

Fewer European nationals are moving to the UK to work as a result of the decision to leave the EU meaning sectors such as agriculture which have relied on these workers have struggled to gather and find fruit and process fish.

Last week one industry boss said Labour shortages in the food industry including among lorry drivers means consumers may face permanent shortages.

“The just-in-time system is no longer working and I don’t think it’ll work again,” Food and Drink Federation (FDF) boss Ian Wright said at an Institute for Government event on Friday.

Supermarket chain Morrisons has previously warned driver shortage will raise food prices.

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The winter of discontent took place during 1978–79 and was characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan had imposed.

Scottish Conservative health spokesperson Annie Wells said: “The SNP blame everything on Brexit because they’ve got nothing else to say. No new ideas to tackle the drug deaths crisis they created, nothing to help the businesses they’ve shafted for years, and no plans to cut down on shocking ambulance waiting times.”