FM needs to be at Brexit table – but she must have the courage to say ‘enough is enough’

Is it a genuine offer -- or a trap? And if the PM’s charm offensive is just a way to share blame for a Brexit catastrophe, is the trap set only for Jeremy Corbyn or for Nicola Sturgeon and independence-supporting Scots too?

It’s clear English voters don’t trust May and Corbyn to hatch a Brexit plan that suits the UK – a Sky Poll has found just 17% of those polled think the talks will lead to a better Brexit outcome.

So if they aren’t likely to get it right for Britain, what are the chances the Jeremay talks will benefit Scotland?

READ MORE: Corbyn and May busy plotting a ‘Better Together Brexit’

At the time of writing, the Labour leader insists no deal was discussed in yesterday’s talks with Theresa May – the two leaders just set out their views. Wow. With nine days to go till we drop out with a no-deal Brexit, this is tortuously slow stuff.

Ears close to the ground however, suggest the shape of a possible deal did emerge and looks awfy similar to the Prime Minister’s deal – you know, the one Labour helped vote down three times. According to the political editor of the Daily Mail (calm down now) the shape is: customs union; permanent alignment of workers’ rights; Tory immigration plans watered down, an end to free movement ends; no second referendum and Britain out of the EU before the Euro elections.

Whit?

No freedom of movement, no second referendum and no lengthy extension?

C’mon Jezza. We ken you dinnae like the EU, we ken you can somehow square your long-professed internationalism with creating a reactionary, foreigner-phobic Fortress Britain and we ken you just want it all over hyper-quick without any democratic input from the British people – but really??

According to Channel Four’s Krishnan Guru Murthy, this “deal” with Theresa May will be contained within the non-binding political declaration and unless that’s translated into legislation fast, it can all simply be ignored by her likely Brexit-supporting successor.

READ MORE: Tory MPs furious as May looks for compromise with a ‘Marxist’

This might mean Corbyn has to sit down with every Tory leadership candidate too – unless May now means to stay on till the trade negotiations and the political declaration are finally finished.

Whit?

Surely the Labour leader wouldn’t sign up for such a hotch-potch – would he?

Well yesterday a Labour spokesperson said a public vote would only be needed ‘“to prevent a damaging Tory Brexit or a no-deal”.

So logically, if there’s a non-damaging Con-Lab Brexit, the People’s Vote is aff.

If Corbyn is thinking along these lines, though, it’s proof positive that he’s gone completely off the rails and Nicola Sturgeon must on no account follow him. Hatching a deal with Theresa that isn’t okayed by a People’s Vote is not just out of step with Labour’s own conference-endorsed Brexit process, it isn’t just bad faith with a scunnered electorate, it’s handing a blank cheque to May’s right-wing, hard-Brexit-favouring successor to rewrite everything agreed the minute the withdrawal agreement’s been signed.

So should the First Minister muscle in or leave well alone?

Responding to speculation about this no-referendum, no-single-movement deal after her own Corbyn meeting, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that she’d be surprised and very disappointed if Labour sold out for such a bad deal. Which suggests a confirmatory vote and continued single movement are still SNP red lines. So should Nicola Sturgeon just walk away from the talks now while the going’s good or stick around and get involved?

It’s like watching a film where the heroine trusts the villain against her gut instincts only to be cruelly and predictably dumped. Half of Scotland is shouting: “Don’t do it.” Don’t trust either of them. Don’t let them tarnish your credibility. Dinnae let them play you. Walk away.”

And yet, and yet.

Another bit of us knows that if there’s a choice between being at the top table or being absent, Scotland must be there – the tartan tail trying to wag the Union flag bulldog – until the bitter end and a total impasse has been reached. That way soft No voters will also have a hollow laugh when Scottish Labour suggest – as they inevitably will – that the First Minister has always wanted a hard Brexit to advance independence.

Equally, if there’s a choice between getting involved or looking distant, difficult, changeable and huffy (cos that’s how Scotland’s refusal to negotiate would be portrayed) then Scotland’s political leaders must stay involved, until the two Westminster parties finally reach deadlock or some kind of deal to put before the electorate in a People’s Vote. Why?

Because if there’s a chance to make the England-Scotland border a non-issue during the next independence referendum by having Scotland and the UK within the same trading arrangements – within a customs union and single market or as full EU members – then Nicola Sturgeon must take it.

Until the moment has completely passed.

And of course, that may happen within the next few days.

Lots of problems are swirling round the two Westminster parties – if they reach agreement can both party leaders deliver their cabinet/shadow cabinets? Already another two ministers have left the stricken May government, including the minister in charge of Brexit planning. Can both leaders deliver their parties? Yesterday at a bizarre Prime Ministers’ Questions – in which the two leaders danced around theBrexit issue – more hostile, angry questions were lobbed at Theresa May from her own backbenchers than from the combined forces of the opposition. And finally can the two leaders deliver the country?

Listen to BBC phone-ins – they are full of English folk who insist they’ll vote Ukip in forthcoming local elections and others who suggest they’d now rather remain than enter any of the disempowered halfway houses likely to be cobbled up by Corbyn and May.

And then there’s the final big problem – does the EU think these two can deliver?

Yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions was about poverty – not Brexit. A sign that neither leader wanted harsh words about the subject they were about to get wellied into minutes later – but also a sign of where the two big parties are really focused. All eyes are on local elections, a possible General Election and even a European election.

All eyes – in other words – are on the English electorate, because no matter what rival politicians manage to agree in Downing Street, the reaction of the English-voting public could yet birl the bouncing Brexit ball off again in a completely unpredictable direction.

Nicola’s nae daft. She’ll stay in and aboot, ready to expose the important failures of a deal the two main combatants will do their utmost to pass off as the bees knees.

But once it’s clear that Theresa and Jeremy have once again done what they do best – nothing – our First Minister must have the courage to pull back, perhaps even pull back all the SNP MPs, explain why and outline a route towards Scottish independence.

It simply isn’t possible to complain for another minute about Scotland being snubbed, ignored and insulted if a terrible deal is done.

North and south of the Border – the stakes are incredibly high.