NICOLA Sturgeon will today urge the UK Government to use its key economic statement this autumn to ensure the proceeds of growth are shared more fairly and so help tackle the feelings of powerlessness and disillusionment that helped produce the Brexit vote.
The First Minister’s call to Theresa May comes in a keynote speech to the Institute of Directors’ annual convention in London and follows an assertion by the Prime Minister that the UK’s decision to leave the European would enhance rather than diminish Scotland's status.
Ms Sturgeon, addressing an audience of 2,000 business leaders at the Royal Albert Hall, will argue that the stark inequalities experienced in communities across the UK were part of the reason many had voted to leave.
“I’m very proud of the fact that Scotland voted so strongly to remain in the European Union but I can’t ignore the fact that even in Scotland, a million people voted to leave. They did not think the European Union benefited them; they did not see advantages from free trade and free movement,” the FM will say.
“In part, Brexit was a product of a sense of disenfranchisement and disillusionment. It was borne of inequality, of feelings of powerlessness; of austerity budgets, which hurt the public services and social safety nets that so many people depend on.”
Ms Sturgeon will insist one consequence of the referendum must be to create a new effort – “which needs to be given real substance in the UK Government’s autumn statement” - to ensure the benefits of growth, of globalisation, are more fairly distributed.
“The UK Government has suffered one of its most significant policy reversals in generations; it can no longer ignore the social and economic cost of inequality and the impact of its misguided commitment to austerity,” Ms Sturgeon will say.
But the Prime Minister has insisted there should be “no doubt; we will get a deal that works for us all”.
Her declaration on Brexit comes in an article Mrs May has written for Holyrood magazine ahead of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham next week.
The PM stresses: “As we strike that deal, we have an exciting chance to forge a new role in the world. Scotland's status will not be diminished by that; it will be enhanced.
“We will go out into the world with the aim of being a leader in global free trade, one that makes the most of our advantages, from the financial expertise of Edinburgh to the shipbuilding prowess of the Clyde and the globally renowned food and drink produce of Scotland's countryside.”
Mrs May insists the Union that matters most to Scotland’s future is the one not with Brussels but that with the rest of the UK and that Scotland was able to weather the slump in the oil price because of the UK’s broad shoulders.
"Tax revenues from the North Sea collapsed but funding for Scottish public services remained unscathed. That is how our Union works; we share each other's successes when times are good and shoulder each other's burdens when times are tough," adds Mrs May.
Willie Rennie for the Scottish Liberal Democrat said it was “laughable” for the PM to claim the Tories were the champions of the Union when it was their Brexit gamble that had “put it at risk".
The SNP meantime accused Mrs May of “jaw-dropping hypocrisy,” noting how in June many senior Tories claimed a Leave vote would diminish the country’s power and influence, cost millions in lost jobs and investment and reflect a bad deal for Scotland. “Now they are trying to pretend that Brexit is the best thing since sliced bread,” said a party spokesman.
Today, a chief Brexiteer, Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is due to give a keynote speech to the World Trade Organisation in Switzerland but has been warned by Labour’s Pat McFadden not to allow Britain to “sleepwalk to a hard Brexit without knowing what this would mean for the economy".
No 10 dismissed as “speculation” reports suggesting the UK Government was now set on such a hard Brexit strategy. However, it failed to confirm that Dr Fox had cleared his speech with Downing Street beforehand.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel