NICOLA Sturgeon will demand a place at the Brexit negotiating table if she wins a majority of Scottish seats at the General Election and will claim her victory is a mandate for her plan to keep Scotland in Europe.
The UK Government has rejected the Scottish Government’s “confusing” proposal to keep Scotland in the single market after the UK leaves – so Ms Sturgeon will put her plan to the people on June 8.
The SNP leader reaffirmed her determination to hold a second independence referendum once the terms of Brexit emerge, but said the General Election result should be seen as a mandate for her “compromise” proposal to keep Scotland inside the UK and the EU in the meantime.
The First Minister also said an independent Scotland may initially have to join the small European trading bloc EFTA in a “phased approach” to EU membership. But she confirmed her priority remains “full EU membership” – without the euro currency or the common fisheries policy in its current form.
The Conservatives said the SNP’s position on Europe has now “descended into complete chaos”.
But Ms Sturgeon said Prime Minister Theresa May is pursuing a “like it or lump it” extreme Brexit deal and Scotland should be offered an alternative.
“At the end of the Brexit process, when the terms of Brexit are clear and people can compare that with the terms and implications of independence, Scotland should have a choice,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. “But in this election, there is actually a more immediate priority and opportunity for Scotland, and that is about making sure our voice is heard in the Brexit negotiations.”
She added: “The Scottish Government previously published proposals that would have accepted we were leaving the EU, but protected our place in the single market.
“The Prime Minister dismissed those proposals out of hand. She didn’t look at them seriously, so this election gives the Scottish people the chance to give real democratic legitimacy to those proposals.”
Mrs May described the SNP’s single market plan as “fanciful” within weeks of the Brexit vote, and Brexit Minister David Davis apparently sealed its fate in March with a letter describing it as a recipe for confusion, diverging regulations, trade barriers and border controls.
But Ms Sturgeon has brought her Scotland in Europe plan back into play for the election.
She said: “My message in this election on Brexit is, whether you vote Leave or whether you were Yes or No in 2014, if you vote SNP you’re strengthening my hand to make sure that Scotland’s voice is heard in these negotiations, that we don’t sacrifice jobs and the economy, and that we can press the case for Scotland’s place in the single market.”
She confirmed the SNP will continue to pursue “full EU membership” – without joining the euro.
“We don’t want to go into the euro – no member of the EU can be forced into the euro and Sweden is one of the examples of that,” she said.
Ms Sturgeon said an independent Scotland may initially have to join EFTA. She said: “We have to set out – if we’re in an independence referendum and we’re not in that right now – the process for regaining or retaining, depending on where we are in the Brexit process, EU membership. Now “Now it may be that we have a phased approach to that by necessity.”
EFTA is a trading bloc of four states — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland — with a combined population about the size of Belgium. The population of Liechtenstein alone is about the size of Stirling.
EFTA offers access to the EU single market without some of the restrictions but with no say on how the market is regulated.
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw,said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s position on Europe has descended into complete chaos.
“She claims we must have a referendum on independence because we’re leaving the EU.
“Now, in a cynical attempt to win back Leave voters who have deserted the SNP, she now refuses to say whether an independent Scotland would go back in.
“And her flirtation with EFTA would leave us with all the obligations but no voice in decision-making.
“Nobody is going to be fooled by these political games.”
The Tories have also been pursing the SNP relentlessly on its apparent contradictions on the EU common fisheries policy.
The SNP has assured fishermen it will not take them back into the “hated” CFP in its current form, but it continues to pursue full EU membership in which CFP compliance is mandatory.
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