THE Tory Government is “far too focused on negotiating with itself” despite the looming Brexit disaster, Kirsty Blackman has said.
Blackman, the SNP’s economy spokesperson and deputy Westminster leader, says businesses are still without the certainty they need even though withdrawal from the bloc is just five months away.
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The Aberdeen North MP said: “Businesses are implementing their plan B, some of them are onto implementing their plan C ... we are so close to Brexit day and nobody has any certainty.”
She added: “People are not happy about the state of the negotiations, they are not happy particularly about the lack of certainty that there is and I don’t think there is any trust in Theresa May’s abilities to get this done.”
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Predicting that a no-deal Brexit would slash income, economic growth and jobs, she stated: “A no-deal scenario is an absolute nightmare scenario,.
“I can’t think of a country in history that has brought such foreseeable economic harm on itself.
“I genuinely think that it will create a huge number of redundancies.”
The SNP, Blackman added, back the Institute of Directors’ calls for the Chancellor to create a fund that would allow smaller businesses to apply for grant money to prepare for the constitutional change. She said: “Businesses in Scotland would really like single market and customs union membership, which is what the SNP has been arguing for since the beginning, because that is the closest possible thing to what we have now.”
Addressing other economic and social issues ahead of today’s Budget statement, Blackman cast doubt on suggestions that Hammond will end austerity.
She said: “I would define the end of austerity as reaching a situation where our public services are adequately funded, where we don’t have a benefits freeze, where we have a situation where people are earning enough to live on, whether they are getting enough to live on through social security or whether they are getting enough to live on through wages.
“I can’t see Philip Hammond choosing to do those things as a Conservative Chancellor.
Urging an overhaul of the social security system – including Universal Credit and the sanctions regime – the politician added: “It’s all well and good for the Tories to stand up and talk about employment figures, but the reality is that if you ask people if they feel poorer or richer, they will tell you that they certainly don’t feel richer.
“One of the key things for me would be to see a massive change in the way that this Government is approaching the social security budget.”
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