THERESA May’s Brexit deal will cost the equivalent of £1600 for each person in Scotland by 2030, according to Scottish Government analysis.

Nicola Sturgeon said her government’s assessment of the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration negotiated by the Prime Minister showed that it was “quite simply” a “bad deal”.

The document, which is the third paper under the Scotland’s Place in Europe title, added that the "only way to guarantee that the wishes of the people of Scotland are respected" would be "to become an independent country".

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Launching the reserach at Bute House this afternoon, Sturgeon said: “The analysis shows why the deal agreed by the Prime Minister is unacceptable to the Scottish Government and damaging to the people of Scotland.

“No government of Scotland with the interests of this and future generations at heart could possibly accept it.

“This deal will take Scotland out of the EU against our will and remove us from the European single market of 500 million people, which is eight times larger than the UK market.

"It will take us out of the customs union and the benefits of EU trade deals with more than 40 countries across the globe. In short, it will make us poorer.”

She added: “Quite simply this is a bad deal, which the UK Government is seeking to impose on the people of Scotland regardless of the damage it will cause. It will not end uncertainty. It will extend it.

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"We are being asked to accept a blindfold Brexit with all the difficult decisions kicked down the road.”

In the analysis, the Scottish Government say the future relationship between the UK and the EU “remains vague”, and looks increasingly as if it will “amount to a free trade agreement”.  

The report says this “will introduce trade frictions and non-tariff barriers which would inhibit Scottish companies’ ability to trade with their EU counterparts and is likely to see business investment, productivity, earnings and employment all reduced, compared to staying in the EU".

Previous modelling by the Scottish Government suggests that this will lead to GDP being around £9 billion lower than if we stayed in the EU, equivalent to £1600 per person in Scotland.

It also warns of barriers to services, which account for around three-quarters of Scotland’s economic output.

In a section headed, Constitutional Implications, the SNP-led government says the deal has “profound implications for the constitutional arrangements of the UK and the devolution settlements".

It concludes: “Neither a bad deal nor no deal are acceptable. That is why the Scottish Government,recognising that what is on the table bears no resemblance to what was sold to voters in 2016, supports a second referendum, acknowledging this would almost certainly require the UK Government to request an extension of the Article 50 withdrawal procedure as provided for in the EU Treaties.”

It adds: “That would present an opportunity – although not a guarantee as the result in the rest of the UK may not change – for the people of Scotland to have their views respected in the way that they were not in the first referendum on 2016.

“The Scottish Government believes that the only way to guarantee that the wishes of the people of Scotland are respected is to become an independent country and that the treatment of Scotland throughout the Brexit process has demonstrated the costs to the Scottish economy and society from not enjoying that independent status.”