Scottish
nationalist fury at ‘arrogant’ May government
“This
is not just about what London wants” — Scotland’s minister for
Brexit.
By PETER GEOGHEGAN
10/5/16, 5:23 AM CET
GLASGOW — Prime
Minister Theresa May’s “spectacular failure” to heed Scottish
opposition to the U.K. leaving the European Union could precipitate
another independence referendum, according to Scotland’s Brexit
minister Michael Russell.
“This is not just
about what London wants, it is about the interests that Scotland
have, and the fact that they need to be heard,” Russell, a veteran
Scottish National party (SNP) member of the devolved Edinburgh
parliament, told POLITICO. “The arrogance of the U.K. government
needs to be called to account.”
May has said that
Scotland — which voted to remain in the EU — will leave along
with the rest of the United Kingdom. There will be “no opt out”
for the devolved administrations when Article 50 is triggered next
March, she told the Conservative party conference Sunday.
The prime minister
added that she would “never allow divisive nationalists to
undermine the precious Union between the four nations of our United
Kingdom.” May’s comments were not well received in Edinburgh.
Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon accused May of “going out
of her way to say that Scotland’s voice and interests don’t
matter.”
“Strange approach
for someone who wants to keep [the] U.K. together,” Sturgeon said
on Twitter.
In the immediate
aftermath of June’s vote, Sturgeon said that a second independence
referendum was “highly likely.” Russell, her SNP colleague, said
another independence referendum “remains an option” and warned
May to “moderate her tone.”
“That option may
look to many people more attractive the more they hear Theresa May.
If that is genuinely what she wants, then she is succeeding. If it
isn’t what she wants, then she had better moderate her tone,” he
said.
But Scotland’s
Brexit minister said the government in Edinburgh was open to dialogue
with London.
“We expect there
to be – and there must be – a constructive process of discussion
between the governments,” Russell said. “Therefore, we are tuning
out the rhetoric and saying what we need to do is to sit down and
create the structure to allow that to happen.”
Both May and
Sturgeon will be in the same room later this month, at a plenary
session of the joint Ministerial Committee — the umbrella body that
includes Westminster and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland.
Russell said he was
keen to “sit down and discuss the key issues that confront
Scotland” but warned that May was playing to a “hardline
audience” in the British Conservative Party.
“She has to
remember, however, that she is now prime minister. She is not an
aspirant to be prime minister, trying to be the darling of the
conference. She is prime minister. She has to, therefore, take a much
broader and wider view of the national good and she is spectacularly
failing in that,” he said.
Vital union
The U.K. Secretary
of State for Scotland, David Mundell, accused Scottish nationalists
of wielding a “sword of Damocles” with the threat of a second
independence referendum.
First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon responds to opposition party leaders during first
minister's questions on September 8, 2016 in Edinburgh, Scotland
Mundell told the
Conservative Party conference in Birmingham that the United Kingdom
is “Scotland’s vital union.”
“We can’t and
won’t provide a running commentary on exiting the EU. But I want
to be absolutely clear: We will negotiate as the United Kingdom;
leave as the United Kingdom and face the future together as the
United Kingdom; a Team U.K. approach. Because the U.K. is Scotland’s
vital union,” the U.K. minister said.
Mundell’s
colleague, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson was expected to
tell the Tory conference that Nicola Sturgeon “does not speak for
the country” by putting a second independence referendum on the
table.
Senior SNP figures
have suggested the Edinburgh parliament could use legal means to keep
Scotland in the EU by blocking the so-called Great Repeal Bill, the
legislation that will remove the European Communities Act 1972 from
statute books, starting the U.K.’s exit from the EU.
Currently, two court
cases seeking to block Brexit on constitutional grounds are being
heard in the High Court in Belfast.
Michael Russell
confirmed that the SNP was “looking at these court cases” but
said that starting a political dialogue was “the priority.”
In July, Sturgeon
set out five “key tests” for Scottish interests in leaving the
EU, including safeguarding free movement and access to the single
market. But as the U.K. faces what looks like a ‘hard Brexit,’
calls for another vote on independence are likely to intensify.
Last month, Sturgeon
launched a consultation on Scottish independence. Next weekend,
thousands of SNP members will attend the party’s annual conference
in Glasgow. Polls, however, suggest that a majority of Scots would
still vote to remain in the U.K.
Some commentators
have suggested that May’s hardline approach is in part an attempt
to call Sturgeon’s bluff on holding another independence
referendum.
Writing on the
University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Constitutional Change blog,
research fellow Kirsty Hughes said May has effectively ruled out any
possibility for Scotland to negotiate a separate relationship with
the EU from the rest of the United Kingdom post-Brexit.
“Any options for
Scotland to stay, at least partly, in the EU while [the rest of the
U.K.] left were always going to depend on political will as well as
technical feasibility. Theresa May has made her position clear. What
is Scotland’s response?”
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