PROPS always make for excellent political spectacle – and SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford had the perfect one in response to a blatant lie from Theresa May.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Theresa May claimed the SNP had backed independence for Scotland in 2014 without a plan in place.
Blackford had asked May: 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."
With that being his second question, Blackford had to wait until points of order – after PMQs – to call Theresa May out on the lie.
As you'll notice in the video above, there is very graphic evidence of May's mistruth.
Blackford had brought along a copy of Scotland's Future – the blueprint published ahead of the 2014 independence referendum. It will have blown a few Brexiteer minds in the audience too, no doubt.
The SNP MP said: "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..."
At that point, Speaker John Bercow cut Blackford off, with no point of order seeming to be forthcoming.
The point had been made though – and very, very clearly.
For Theresa May to say Scotland would have crashed out of Europe, too, is an astonishing example of her almost unparalleled brass neck.
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