By Kirsty Blackman MP, SNP deputy Westminster leader
More than 1,000 days have passed since the EU referendum, yet we find ourselves at another Brexit impasse. Theresa May is set to, yet again, bring her bad Brexit deal back to Parliament, in spite of it being resoundingly rejected by the MPs – twice.
The UK has been granted a short extension to avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal. It is imperative that this time is used to take back control – to seek a meaningful extension to Article 50 to hold a second EU referendum.
Theresa May must face the facts – her deal is dead.
At the first attempt, her deal suffered the biggest defeat for a Prime Minister in parliamentary history and when she brought it back again, it suffered the fourth-biggest defeat in history. It is clear that the Prime Minister’s premiership has been a historic failure, her leadership has led the country into chaos and instead of stopping to seek compromise and away forward – the Prime Minister continues on with this fiasco.
She has to change course or resign. The SNP voted against the Prime Minister’s deal twice and it’s still the same deal. We still will not vote for a deal that would damage Scotland – the only democratic way forward is to put the decision back to the people, with the option to Remain on the ballot paper.
That’s why Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford marched in favour of a people’s vote in London yesterday. Thousands of people across these islands came together to say no to the Prime Minister and to ask that again the people are allowed to decide their future. Citizens should have the right to change their minds.
Citizens are already demonstrating that they want to change their minds. Thousands marching on Saturday, but also we have seen a petition calling for a revocation of Article 50, which had more than three million signatures by noon on Friday. There is clear widespread public opposition to the UK Government’s mishandling of Brexit. People want Theresa May to end this farce and find a new path – not to continue to bury her head in the sand.
Time is ticking down, day by day we are getting closer to the cliff edge. Action is required now. If the Prime Minister does not grant a second EU referendum then the SNP will push for Article 50 to be revoked. We need to stop this shambles now. Brexit could cost Scotland up to 100,000 jobs and leave our nation poorer. Scotland must be protected. There is no such thing as a good Brexit. Nor is there a "jobs first" Brexit. Brexit means economic disaster.
Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but this has consistently been ignored by Tory MPs in Westminster, including those with seats in Scotland. Despite knowing full well the disastrous impact that no deal would have on Scotland, all but one Scottish Tory MP either abstained or voted to keep no deal on the table.
It is becoming clearer by the day that the Tories cannot be trusted to act in Scotland’s best interests. Since 2017, the UK Government has placed Scotland’s future in the hands of either the DUP or the cohort of extreme Brexiters in the Tory party. Just last week Scotland’s future was being dictated by 10 DUP MPs when the Tory Government attempted to once more buy their support ahead of key Brexit votes. The Tory party believes it can do whatever it wants to Scotland and get away it. Their actions are appalling – focused solely on serving the interests of their party instead of the interests of the people of Scotland.
It is alarming that the so-called official Opposition has proven to be no opposition at all. We have seen Labour sit on the fence over Brexit and continue to prevaricate over supporting a second EU referendum.
This week was the first time that the opposition parties had the opportunity to meet together with Jeremy Corbyn since the EU referendum – a mere week away from the UK’s initial scheduled date to leave the EU. Not for want of trying on our part – he has failed to turn up despite repeated invitations.
It is time for the Tories and Labour to get serious and act in the interests of our countries not their parties. They need to stop this pointless posturing and work on a cross-party basis to agree an extension to Article 50 for a second EU referendum.
People in the UK deserve a choice over their future and Scotland deserves to be listened to. Scotland did not vote for Brexit. We should not be dragged out of the EU against our will. The time is coming for Scotland to have a new conversation about our future and the potential of Scotland as an independent, inclusive, outward-looking country. We cannot and will not continue to be ignored by Westminster.
By Stephen Kerr, Conservative MP for Stirling
I BELIEVE firmly that the Prime Minister’s deal is a good one. It fulfils the instruction that the British people gave when we decided to leave the European Union. It gives security to European citizens here and UK citizens in the EU. It ensures we stop spending vast sums of money to the EU.
Most importantly it allows the debate to move on to the important work of negotiating and deciding our future relationship with the EU. This is where the debate should be.
This week Parliament has spent many hours debating and questioning the Government position on Brexit. It spent the week before that doing the same thing, and the week before that, and the week before that.
Parliament has explored all the options, everything that can possibly be said has been said. The final analysis has been reached many times.
In all the verbiage over the past week, nothing has been added.
A second referendum would unleash more of the same pointless debate, divide the country and create a disillusionment with our democracy. Referendums are inherently a bad thing, they unleash division and hatred.
The country does not need more debate and discussion, it does not need MPs to talk more. It needs them to listen and it needs them to compromise.
That is why the Prime Minister spoke for so many of us last week when she expressed her frustration with Parliament. History will judge harshly the obsession with arcane procedure and those who make unjustifiable, unobtainable demands.
In Theresa May we have a Prime Minister who has a more difficult job to do than any other in peacetime. Her fortitude and strength are remarkable and conspicuous.
It is a shame that so many of our elected representatives are unable or unwilling to listen and compromise. Entrenched opinions are bad for everyone and those who spent their political careers campaigning to leave the EU may lose that goal in pursuit of what they perceive as perfection.
Let us not forget what is at stake here. Our future as a country hangs in the balance. There are those who are not interested in solving problems, but in creating them.
Chaos is being used as a weapon in our country today.
Chaos, purposefully created, is fuelling nationalism. This is happening in Scotland today. We are in a situation where SNP Cabinet Secretaries revelling in uncertainty exacerbate an already febrile atmosphere by calling their opponents traitors. A political point that justifies nationalist hatred.
SNP nationalists see chaos as a stratagem, one which reaches their goal of independence. They are the only ones who benefit. The people of Scotland, UK citizens and EU citizens alike suffer.
The deal that will be put back before MPs next week is one which offers certainty. It offers a release from the repetitious Brexit argument the country is stuck in. It offers an opportunity for the country to move on.
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