THERESA May attacked Scottish independence during Prime Minister's Questions today – and Ian Blackford had the perfect response to her blatant lie.
In fact, as she tried to distract from the Brexit shambles around her, it seemed as if she'd been inspired by a recent Question Time broadcast...
It all came after a question from SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford.
The SNP MP had asked: “Just 44 days from a no-deal scenario the Prime Minister is hamstrung by her own party and rejected by European leaders.
“The prime minister must stop playing fast and loose. Businesses are begging for certainty. The economy is already suffering.
“Prime Minister, you’ve come to the end of the road, rumbled by your own loose-lipped senior Brexit adviser. Will the Prime Minister now face down the extremists in her own party and extend Article 50?”
May responded: "He talks about certainty for business. He can give business certainty by voting for the deal, that’s what gives business certainty.
"He complains about no deal, but of course it was the SNP who wanted to leave the UK without a plan. And perhaps we should remind the SNP that independence would have meant leaving the EU with no deal."
Yes, May actually claimed the SNP wanted to leave the UK "without a plan".
Perhaps, given the Leave campaign's absolutely embarrassing lack of preparation, she finds it inconceivable to even imagine a side in a referendum campaigning for independence having a plan.
That wasn't the case for Scotland, though, and Blackford had the perfect response to prove it.
In a point of order after PMQs, he brought out a copy of the 650-page white paper on "Scotland's Future" – a blueprint for an independent Scotland published ahead of the referendum. He had the hard evidence.
The SNP MP hit back: "I think all of us recognise the responsibility of the language we use in the discourse we have in this House. And can I try and be helpful to the Prime Minister, because perhaps inadvertently she misled the house when she said there was no plan for Scottish independence.
"Because unlike the Brexit campaign, where there was no more than a slogan on the side of a bus, we had..."
Speaker John Bercow cut Blackford off there (because no point of order was actually being made), but the message had be sent, and May's lie was exposed.
As well as this blatant mistruth though, May in her PMQs answer had said: "Independence would have meant leaving the EU with no deal."
This is highly debatable on the facts alone, but to make this point as she drives Scotland to a Brexit – and very possibly a no-deal Brexit – that we didn't vote for, it's showing such brass-neck that it could only be the Maybot.
Scottish Brexit secretary Mike Russell hit back on Twitter too.
He wrote: "A) There was a 600 page plan but hardly a leaflet for “Leave” in 2016 B) This isn’t an answer to the fact that the Prime Minister is personally responsible for the #Brexit chaos causing huge insecurity C) The EU point was a lie then & is an embarrassment for all Unionists now."
A) There was a 600 page plan but hardly a leaflet for “Leave” in 2016
— Michael Russell (@Feorlean) February 13, 2019
B) This isn’t an answer to the fact that the Prime Minister is personally responsible for the #Brexit chaos causing huge insecurity
C) The EU point was a lie then & is an embarrassment for all Unionists now. https://t.co/iUu9rraN0p
May's answer parroted familiar Unionist talking points, but perhaps there is a particularly recent source for the Prime Minister's ridiculous answer?
Remember the angry Unionist on Question Time in Motherwell, the one who was a former Ukip candidate? It seems like he may have been Theresa May's direction inspiration.
During that Question Time, he asked: "Where was the SNP strategy in 2014? Where was the deal? ... You were told by the EU that you don't automatically get back in."
When May finds herself mirroring his rhetoric, perhaps she should check the facts with a little more care...
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