THERESA May drew fury yesterday when she described supporters of Scottish independence as “divisive nationalists” and insisted there will be “no opt-out from Brexit” for any part of the UK.
In a speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister said that while she would “consult and work” with devolved administrations’ executives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland during the course of the two-year talks to leave, only the UK Government alone would carry out the negotiations.
And she made it clear there would be no special deals for different parts of the country.
“The negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union are the responsibility of the government and nobody else.
“I have already said that we will consult and work with the devolved administrations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, because we want Brexit to work in the interests of the whole country. And we will do the same with business and municipal leaders across the land.
“But the job of negotiating our new relationship is the job of the government. Because we voted in the referendum as one United Kingdom, we will negotiate as one United Kingdom, and we will leave the European Union as one United Kingdom.
“There is no opt-out from Brexit. And I will never allow divisive nationalists to undermine the precious union between the four nations of our United Kingdom.”
Her words sparked an angry response from Nicola Sturgeon, who has set out plans for a draft bill for a second independence referendum in a bid to allow an independent Scotland to remain in the bloc after voters north of the Border backed remaining by 62 per cent.
The First Minister suggested the approach May adopted yesterday could hasten the break-up of the UK.
“PM going out of her way to say Scotland’s voice and interests don’t matter,” she wrote on Twitter. “Strange approach from someone who wants to keep UK together.”
Pete Wishart, the SNP shadow leader of the House of Commons and chair of the Scottish Affairs select committee, also hit out.
“Brexit as well as becoming ‘harder’ is becoming more belligerent, chauvinistic and defiantly UK nationalist. God help us..... #toryBrexit,” he wrote.
Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens MSP, tweeted: “Tories going for the ‘recessions can be fun’ approach. Absolute self-destruction.”
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Earlier in her speech May seemed to put Britain on track for a “hard Brexit” by the spring of 2019, saying she would not accept any limits on the UK’s ability to control its own borders – appearing to accept willingness for it to be taken it out of the single market too.
She declared the UK will “make our own decisions” on immigration as she announced she would trigger Article 50 , beginning the two-year process of leaving the bloc, by the end of March 2017.
To loud applause from Tory delegates, she said: “I know some people ask about the ‘trade-off’ between controlling immigration and trading with Europe. But that is the wrong way of looking at things.
“We have voted to leave the European Union and become a fully independent, sovereign country.
“We will do what independent, sovereign countries do. We will decide for ourselves how we control immigration. And we will be free to pass our own laws.”
Responding to May’s speech, European Council President Donald Tusk said other EU states would act to safeguard their own interests, while Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat – who will be president of the council when May kicks off talks – said the single market’s four freedoms of goods, services, capital and people “cannot be decoupled”.
During her speech May also confirmed plans trailed earlier in the press for a Great Repeal Bill to overturn the 1972 Act that took the UK into what was then the European Economic Community.
But Scotland’s Brexit minister Mike Russell suggested Holyrood could vote against the Bill.
Russell said legislation to transpose all EU law applying to the UK into domestic law would require the consent of the Scottish Parliament, where the majority of MSPs are against it.
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland whether the Scottish Parliament would vote against a repeal Bill, he said: “Presently there is a majority against that repeal Bill, that is absolutely obvious.”
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