THE SNP have branded Theresa May’s trips to Brussels as “a waste of time”, with the party’s leader at Westminster calling her a “European backpacker”.
It comes as the Prime Minister suffered more broadsides in her attempts to portray unity among Tory ranks over the weekend.
Those came in the form of an undermining statement from a party colleague yesterday, as well as a leaked WhatsApp message from a senior Tory MP which also called her Brussels negotiations a “waste of time”.
In a letter to Conservative MPs last week, the PM urged her party to “move beyond what divides us” and sacrifice “personal preferences”. It also warned them “history will judge us all” if the party makes a mess of Brexit.
The letter came after yet another humiliating defeat for the UK Government on Valentine’s Day, when May’s EU plans were cut down after Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group MPs abstained on a motion which looked to rule out a no-deal Brexit.
The Prime Minister was not present for the House of Commons defeat by 303 votes to 258. She later called the result “disappointing” and announced she would return to Brussels this week to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other EU leaders.
Mike Russell said that everyone else other than May realises that she cannot get a different deal from the EU when she returns for negotiations, unless she changes her red lines.
Russell, the Scottish Government’s Brexit minister said: “As she won’t do that, it is just stating the obvious to say that not only are her trips a waste of time, they are actually deliberate and very damaging time-wasting by her to try to force and frighten the country into backing the really bad things she has already agreed.
“By doing so she proves again that she and the Tories are not only reckless and incompetent they are also totally unfit for government office.”
Russell was joined in condemning the chaos gripping the UK Government by Ian Blackford, who likened May to a “European backpacker” due to her repeated trips to the continent.
“Donald Tusk and his colleagues made it crystal clear that they will not reopen talks on the withdrawal agreement. It is not up for discussion,” Blackford said.
“The PM is delusional and running back and forward to Brussels like a European backpacker. Talks about the backstop show she and her government fail to recognise that it is there to preserve peace as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
He added: “As I put to her at Prime Minister’s questions last week, this chaos the people of Scotland have the opportunity to reflect on Scotland’s future, which should be as an independent country.”
Those comments followed a series of statements from Tories which undermined the beleaguered Prime Minister.
The first of those came from culture secretary Jeremy Wright, who admitted on yesterday’s Andrew Marr Show that May may not be able to re-open discussions with the EU on her Brexit deal and that the “mechanism” for securing changes was unimportant.
“I don’t think it’s the mechanism that matters, it’s the objective,” said Wright.
“If you can get to a place where the potential longevity of the backstop, the potential that the backstop lasts forever can be adequately dealt with, that’s what we’re all seeking to do.
“That’s what Parliament has been very clear that it wants, it will back this deal if we can do something about the backstop.”
He continued: “If there are other ways of doing it that are just as effective that perhaps we haven’t yet explored then we will do that too.”
Later it emerged that senior Brexiteer Steve Baker dismissed May’s attempts to woo Brussels “a waste of time”.
The Sunday Times reported that the Tory MP made the criticism in a private Conservative WhatsApp group, which were leaked to the newspaper.
Baker, who is chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, sent messages suggesting that any attempt by May to table a deal which failed to remove the Irish backstop would see the party “grind towards a party split”.
He also alleged in the leaked messages that the PM and the EU were “working together to run down the clock” to try and pass the deal by the end of March.
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