NICOLA Sturgeon has said the Prime Minister has no chance of getting her Brexit deal passed in the Commons next month.
Theresa May has promised to bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill before MPs for the fourth time in the first week of June after it has been defeated in three votes.
Talks between the PM and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have so far failed to reach agreement on a compromise and the DUP and many of her backbenchers continue to oppose it due to the inclusion of the Northern Ireland backstop.
Asked if she believed the Prime Minister will secure support to pass the deal at the June vote, the First Minister said: “It doesn’t look to me as if she has any chance of getting it through because nothing has changed.
“She hasn’t made any progress in the last few weeks and it seems to me to be more about preserving her own party than doing what is right for the country.
“The SNP will vote against it because that would take Scotland out of the EU, out of the single market, out of the customs union and that’s not in Scotland’s interests.
“If you want to continue to send a message that Scotland’s place is at the heart of Europe, then voting SNP [at the EU Parliamentary election] and strengthening our hand in that is the way to do it.”
The SNP leader was speaking after meeting EU nationals working at Glasgow University and said she planned to use the European election next week to send the message that Scotland wants to stay in Europe.
She said: “The EU nationals, people who make a contribution to Scotland, who consider Scotland their home are being treated appallingly and being subjected to huge uncertainty for them and their families.
“My message to them is that they are welcome here, we want them to stay in Scotland and this is their home.
“We’re optimistic, we’re aiming to win these elections and we’re aiming to use these elections, hopefully with the support of people across Scotland, to send a very clear, simple and unequivocal message from Scotland, which is Scotland wants to stay at the heart of Europe, we don’t support Brexit and we want an end to the Westminster chaos that is doing so much damage.
“And the way to send that clear, unequivocal message is to vote SNP and then we send it loudly and clearly.”
EU nationals working at Glasgow University told the First Minister about their experience of Brexit so far, with senior lecturer Maria Economou, who moved from her native Greece to Scotland with her husband in 2014, saying it was “very worrying” and that her family had sought legal advice regarding their status.
Having applied for settled status, which incurred a £65 fee for adults until this was scrapped by the UK Government, she said: “It’s not the money, although that adds up as well, it’s how you are treated as a citizen.”
Tracey Aydogan, head of international and academic recruitment for the university, said leading researchers approached for roles have cited Brexit as a reason for not wanting to move their families.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said a Brexit “backroom agreement” between May and Corbyn would “sell out the people of Scotland”.
“The people of Scotland are none the wiser of what is going in these secret Tory-Labour talks. Scotland’s people and the will of the Scottish Parliament is being ignored,” he said. “Why is the Prime Minister so afraid of giving the people of Scotland their say?”
May replied that people of Scotland would know where things stand if the SNP voted for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill and ensure “we leave the EU”.
The European Parliament elections take place next Thursday.
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