Ian Blackford has accused Theresa May of 'perhaps inadvertently' misleading parliament over her Brexit deal in a heated exchange in the House of Commons.
The Prime Minister was accused of "misleading the House of Commons" by the SNP over the Irish backstop after the full Brexit legal advice was published.
Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, the SNP MP said: "The Prime Minister has been misleading the house, inadvertently or otherwise."
The Speaker, John Bercow, then intervened stating: "There can be no suggestion of otherwise.
"The Right Honourable Gentleman must make it clear that there is no suggestion that the Government is misleading the house deliberately.
"There can be no question of that.
@IanBlackford says "facts have had to be dragged out" regarding #Brexit legal advice and says the PM has been misleading the House. Speaker asks him to retract this "imputation"; Blackford reminds Bercow he said "inadvertently". #PMQs pic.twitter.com/lkeGXc9r7A
— The Parliamentary Review (@theparlreview) December 5, 2018
"If the Right Honourable Gentleman wants to use the word 'inadvertently' which people do now and again, he can, but there must be no ambiguity on the point and I ask the Right Honourable Gentleman to clarify that matter."
Ian Blackford continued however: "Mr Speaker, I did use the word inadvertently and I repeat it. Since the Prime Minister has returned from Brussels with her deal, the Prime Minister has been misleading the House, perhaps inadvertently."
SNP's Ian Blackford: #Brexit deal denies Scotland "rights and opportunities... offered to other parts of the UK"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) December 5, 2018
Theresa May: "Remaining in the internal market of the UK is the most important economic interest" for Scotland
Follow #PMQs live: https://t.co/gfRBXuPVXl pic.twitter.com/2Uk5Fcdws9
Mr Blackford was then interrupted by members of the House, with the speaker once again intervening saying: "Order. I always want the Right Honourable Gentleman to be heard fully and he will be.
"But there can be no imputation of dishonour, and the insertion of the word 'perhaps' suggests the Right Honourable Gentleman wants to keep his option open.
"The option of imputing dishonour does not exist. That word must now be removed. Please rephrase continue and complete. Briefly. "
This led Mr Blackford to alter his wording to say she had done it "perhaps inadvertently".
Mr Blackford once again took to the floor however saying: "Mr Speaker, I say again, inadvertently.
"The Prime Minister must explain once again why she continues to deny Scotland the rights and opportunities that her deal offers to other parts of the United Kingdom."
In response, Mrs May said the copy of the full legal advice he was holding was "no different" to the statement the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox made on Monday.
She added: "I have myself said on the floor of this House that there is indeed no unilateral right to pull out of the backstop.
"What I have also said is that it is not the intention of either party that a) the backstop should be used in the first place, or ... b) that if it is used, should be anything other than temporary."
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