Sturgeon is leading Scots over a cliff edge like lemmings, claims Drax
NICOLA Sturgeon is potentially leading the people of Scotland “over a cliff like lemmings to economic ruin” by calling for a second independence referendum, a Tory MP has claimed.
Richard Drax, who represents the south coast of England seat of Dorset, added that the First Minister and her SNP colleagues were behaving “totally irresponsibly” by demanding a second poll.
The Tory backbencher was heckled as he spoke. A number of SNP MPs laughed at the apparent irony of a Leave supporter warning about cliff edges and the potential economic woes resulting from the break-up of the Union when critics of the UK Government’s approach on the EU claim its “hard Brexit” would see the UK economy fall off a cliff edge.
Mrs May told her Conservative colleague that as the Brexit talks began it was important for the country to “come together, recognising the interests of all parts of the United Kingdom and ensuring that we get absolutely the right deal for the whole part of the United Kingdom”.
With a sense of irony, Alex Salmond congratulated the PM on “bringing the country together and uniting Scotland behind our First Minister”.
He quoted what he called the “Tory Bible”, the Daily Telegraph, which, he said, stated in July that Mrs May would not trigger the formal process for leaving the EU “‘until there is an agreed ‘UK approach’ backed by Scotland’”.
He asked: “Was that misreporting by The Daily Telegraph, misspeaking by the Prime Minister, or is she still working on it?”
The PM told Mr Salmond that he knew “full well we have been in discussions with the Scottish Government and the other devolved administrations, recognising the issues they have raised and recognising the concerns and the common ground between us”.
She later referred to Mr Salmond’s famous quote about how the 2014 referendum vote was a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity, telling MPs: “It seems that a generation is now less than three years.”
Meantime, during an emergency question in the Lords on Ms Sturgeon’s referendum demand, Lord Dunlop, the Scotland Office Minister, told peers he could think of nothing more calculated to “undermine the achievement” of a good Brexit deal than holding a “divisive and disruptive”.