Joining the European Union as an independent nation would “put rocket boosters” on Scotland’s coronavirus recovery, a senior SNP MP has claimed.
Alyn Smith, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, said that currently firms were having to try to survive the Covid-19 pandemic at the same time as coping with the fallout from Brexit.
He told how the decision to leave the EU had caused shortages within the labour market and resulted in empty supermarket shelves across the country.
READ MORE: SNP deputy says there may be issues with some goods crossing border after independence
But Mr Smith said: “Getting back into the European Union would put rocket boosters on our recovery from Covid.”
He added: “We can do better than we are doing right now. Independence in Europe is the answer to the problems that Scotland has.”
His comments came as the former Scottish MEP, who was elected to the House of Commons in 2019, conceded that the SNP had failed in its attempts to stop Brexit.
Recalling his election to Westminster, he said: “I stood in Stirling in 2019 explicitly on a stop Brexit ticket, and we didn’t.”
He told the SNP conference that now “the reality of Brexit is dawning on the people of Scotland on a daily basis”, adding that “it has been a slow-motion trauma, for me personally, but also for Scotland as an economy and a society”.
The Stirling MP continued: “The democratic outrage of what has been done to us against our will is actually a failure on our part, because we didn’t stop Brexit.”
READ MORE: Alex Salmond and Kenny MacAskill confirmed as Alba leadership team
However with the impact of leaving the EU now becoming clearer, he said this was helping convert Scots to independence.
He told SNP supporters: “That reality is moving so many people from scepticism about independence to enthusiasm for independence in Europe.
“Because in the UK – and I see it at Westminster on a daily basis – everybody knows the ship is sinking, everybody knows the captain lies. And we’re just expected to go along with it.”
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