NICOLA Sturgeon has been forced to deny a breakdown in SNP unity over Brexit, after two of her MPs signed a pledge effectively saying Scotland should not rejoin the EU.
The First Minister insisted there was “utter consistency” in the party's ranks, despite the MPs refusing to support anything that returned Scotland to the Common Fisheries’ Policy (CFP).
As being in the CFP is a prerequisite of EU membership, the pledge put Eilidh Whiteford and Mike Weir at odds with SNP policy, which is currently full EU membership.
Both MPs, Ms Whiteford in Banff & Buchan and Mr Weir in Angus, are supporters of the local fishing industry, which opposes the CFP limiting catches and opening waters to foreign fleets.
With the general election looming, Ms Whiteford is under particular pressure to take a hard anti-EU line, as hers was one of the most pro-Brexit seats in last year’s referendum.
Although she increased her majority to 14,339 over the Tories in 2015.
On Tuesday, both she and Mr Weir signed a pledge circulated to election candidates by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation which described Brexit as a “sea of opportunity”.
It went on: "We must avoid any policy, practice, regulation or treaty which could return us to the CFP and the enforced giveaway of almost two-thirds of our fish stocks.”
Ms Whiteford also said Scotland should not rejoin the EU without “a specific democratic mandate. It would either be another referendum or an election.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell also signed the Federation’s pledge.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson raised the issue at First Minister’s Questions, attacking the “complete absurdity of the SNP’s position - or should I say positions?”
She said: “Right now, we have SNP MPs in fishing communities saying that the CFP is terrible and that Scotland would pull out.
“At the same time, we have Nicola Sturgeon standing up in Edinburgh trying to win the votes of Remainers by saying that Scotland would go straight back in.
“Does the First Minister not see the utter hypocrisy here?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “I see utter consistency, over years, in the SNP’s position on the Common Fisheries Policy; from the Tories, I see flip-flopping all the time on Brexit and on fishing.”
She also quoted from the UK Government’s Brexit White Paper which said there should be a “mutually beneficial deal that works for the UK and the EU’s fishing communities”.
She said that translated into the Tories “selling out the fishing industry”.
She added: “What does that mean if it does not mean allowing Spain and other countries access to Scottish fishing waters? Why can Ruth Davidson not be honest with the fishing community? The Tories are preparing to treat it as being expendable all over again.
“It is the SNP that will always stand up for fishing.”
Looking to the council elections on May 4, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale accused the SNP of overseeing a declining education system.
She read an email from Blackhall Primary in Edinburgh warning parents of a “national shortage of teachers”, and revealed the Government had recently admitted, in an obscure document, that it would take three years to fill Scotland’s 700 teacher vacancies.
“Can the First Minister really keep a straight face and tell teachers, parents and pupils once again that education is her number one priority?”
Ms Sturgeon said she had never shied away from the challenge of teacher vacancies, and Scotland was not the only country with the problem. She said her government would get on with “the hard work” of addressing it, while Labour was “as usual, carping from the sidelines.”
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said Ms Sturgeon made her party look “shifty and evasive” over Europe, and asked her to clarify SNP policy on EU membership. She said: "I support Scotland being independent and an independent member of the European Union.”
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