THE SNP have slammed Brexit as an "isolationist project" that ignores the sovereignty of the Scottish people.

Patrick Grady, the SNP’s chief whip, also accused the Tories of “trampling all over the devolution settlement” following a clash with the SNP about sovereignty in the Commons.

Grady asked the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, if he would allow a “debate on sovereignty” to take place in the London parliament.

The MP for Glasgow North said: “The briefing pack for [the Tory] party’s Backbenchers keeps banging on about how the United Kingdom is about to become an independent sovereign nation, and I wonder if that means that it is Government policy that other EU members, such as Germany, France, Spain and the rest of them, are somehow not independent sovereign nations, because I think that would be news to them.

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“If [Rees-Mogg] does think that sovereignty is so important, will he confirm that in May next year he will support the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine the form of government best suited to their needs?”

The SNP have not polled below 50% in the Holyrood elections since early December 2019, reaching highs of 58% on more than one occasion. If polls solidify into a pro-independence majority at next year’s elections, it will be read as a clear mandate for a second independence referendum.

In response to Grady’s question, Rees-Mogg said it was an “obvious state of democracy” that the winner in May 2021 “will form the Government in Holyrood”.

The Tory MP went on: “It is also an obvious state of democracy that people voted in 2014 to remain part of the United Kingdom, in the great wisdom of the Scottish people.

“As regards the point the hon. Gentleman makes about the UK being independent on 1 January, it will be. The other EU member states are the members of a super-state, which is increasingly centralising power under a bureaucracy in Brussels.

“That is why we voted to leave.”

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Responding to Rees-Mogg’s comments, Grady told the National that the option of leaving the EU had been “resoundingly rejected by people in Scotland”.

The chief whip said: “The European Union has always been a partnership of equals, with checks and balances that make sure the voices of smaller states are heard clearly at the top table. In Brexit Britain, the Tories are trampling all over the devolution settlement.

“Brexit is an isolationist project that will diminish the UK’s standing on the world stage - and it was resoundingly rejected by people in Scotland.

“The tradition in Scotland is that sovereignty lies with the people.

“The House of Commons accepted that Claim of Right in July 2018, and when people in Scotland exercise that right in May of next year, the UK Government must respect their decision.”