NICOLA Sturgeon has hinted that SNP MPs could back calls for a softer Brexit in next Monday’s vote in the Commons.
Tweeting after the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal was roundly defeated for the third time, Sturgeon said that while her party favoured a People’s Vote or remaining in the EU, they would now “work with others to find the best option possible”.
It’s not yet clear what proposals MPs will be asked to vote on next Monday, but it’s almost certain that at least one of them will be a form of customs union.
READ MORE: SNP must fight compromise – it's the soft Brexiteers who should change position
There had been some criticism of the SNP for abstaining on the motions backing a customs union, one form of soft Brexit, during Wednesday’s indicative votes.
In Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions, interim Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw accused the First Minister of stoking up “faux outrage”.
He told MSPs: “When it came to the crunch the First Minister whipped her MPs against supporting her own policy of a customs union.”
One proposal, tabled by veteran Tory Europhile Ken Clarke, and backed by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, which would have required the Government to negotiate a “permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union with the EU” in any Brexit deal, was defeated by eight votes.
The SNP said it wasn’t quite right as it wouldn’t allow for the free movement of EU citizens to Scotland, a key issue for the party.
“A customs union on its own is not a position we’ve advocated because it would not protect Scotland’s interests,” Sturgeon said. “The compromise we proposed, only if Remain not an option, was full single market and customs union membership.”
But yesterday, the party’s former depute leader, Stewart Hosie, added his name to the Common Market 2.0, or Norway Plus, proposals being put forward by Tory MP Nick Boles.
This would see the UK become a member of the European Free Trade Association (Efta) and European Economic Area (EEA).
While it keeps the UK out of the EU and gives some distance from the European Court of Justice, it does still involve freedom of movement.
READ MORE: Brexit has highlighted the critical absence of courage at Westminster
Hosie told The National that Bole’s proposal was closest to the “compromise position” set out by the Scottish Government in December 2016. “While the SNP would prefer to see Brexit revoked entirely, while we have campaigned for a People’s Vote, should we find ourselves in a position where there will be some kind of Brexit, then we need to look at the least worst option,” he said.
“I put my name to this motion for next week in order to help keep it on the ballot paper, for MPs to consider when we get to that point then.”
He added that the SNP’s “compromise position is still on the table, if it’s required, and this is the closest thing to that, that we think has the remotest chance”.
Writing in today’s National, Dr Kirsty Hughes, the director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations urged the SNP’s MPs to resist. She says they should fight for a People’s Vote and “not now compromise to back an undemocratic ‘soft’ Brexit.”
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