NICOLA Sturgeon has urged MSPs not to play the Westminster game and be complicit “in a Boris Johnson imposed democratic, social and economic calamity for Scotland”.
The First Minister was opening a debate in Holyrood on the agreement. MSPs will be asked this afternoon whether or not to give it legislative consent.
But with the SNP, Labour, the Greens and the LibDems all set to oppose, it will almost certainly fail.
READ MORE: Brexit deal: Tory MSP told to 'hang his head in shame' over support
The First Minister said the agreement was “the worst negotiating outcome in history”.
It would, she said, deliver a “hard Brexit for Scotland, and a comprehensive sellout of the Scottish fishing industry".
The First Minister hit out at the Scottish Tories, accusing them of being “Boris Johnson's mouthpiece”.
“They will abandon any principle, break any promise, sell out any sector if Westminster and Boris Johnson tell them to,” she warned.
READ MORE: Ian Blackford: Scotland to take the 'empty seat at the top table in Europe'
The FM suggested that Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, had surrendered her red lines on the deal after being made a baroness by the Prime Minister.
“Not that long ago Ruth Davidson made it known that she would resign, rather than support a differential deal for Northern Ireland,” she said.
“It's amazing what the offer of a place in the House of Lords can do to the merest whiff of a Ruth Davidson principle.
“Adam Tomkins went even further. No Unionist, he said, could never endorse any sort of differentiated deal for Northern Ireland. That's what this deal delivers, a hard Brexit for Scotland, and a special Single Market deal for Northern Ireland.
“They're even dragging us out of Erasmus, a truly wonderful horizon expanding scheme that gives young people opportunities to live and study across Europe. And again the Tories have told us that wouldn't happen.
“‘Erasmus is something which all parties agree must continue post Brexit’, the words of Jackson Carlaw.
“But the UK Government has now turned its back on Erasmus and sold out out young people as well. And Jackson Carlaw? Not a peep. I can only assume that his ermine cloak is in the post.
“What is now very clear is this, the Scottish Tories are ignored by their Westminster bosses, just like Scotland as a whole is, but they lack the gumption or the self respect to do anything about it.
“They are Boris Johnson's mouthpiece. They will abandon any principle, break any promise, sellout any sector if Westminster and Boris Johnson tell them to. Today is conclusive proof of that.”
The Brexit deal, the First Minister said, "has no benefits, only massive downsides".
Sturgeon accused the UK Government of showing “utter contempt for Scotland and our people” with the Brexit deal.
She said the agreement with the EU will “make us less free” and cost UK businesses £7 billion each year in added regulatory requirements.
“This must be the worst negotiating outcome in history, a hard Brexit for Scotland, and a comprehensive sellout of the Scottish fishing industry,” Sturgeon said.
Challenged by Scottish Tory MSP Dean Lockhart about the UK being able to strike new free trade deals immediately Sturgeon replied: “None of these free trade agreements will make up for membership of the world’s biggest single market that, in two days time, we get ripped off against our will.”
In her speech, Ruth Davidson accused the SNP of “hypocrisy”.
Davidson said the choice was between a deal or no-deal and said the SNP was “stoking up division”.
She said: “To vote against the deal is to vote against zero trade zero tariffs, to vote against deep security intelligence co-operation – never before, offered by the EU in such an agreement.
“It’s voting against participation in science and research and space programmes.
“It is voting against agreements for airlines and hauliers and is voting against securing access for our fishermen to markets for their products, and is voting against recognition for geographical indicators like Scotch whisky, Stornoway black pudding and Arbroath Smokies.”
Why, she added, did the First Minister hate Arbroath smokies.
Sturgeon replied: “Every single thing that Ruth Davidson has just listed, we had as members of the European Union.”
Richard Leonard denied there was any inconsistency in his party’s position. While MSPs are voting against giving the deal legislative consent, Labour’s MPs – including their sole Scottish representative – will vote for the deal.
Leonard told MSPs: “A vote against the proposition in Westminster today is to risk the chaos and damage of a no-deal outcome.
“And you can’t say by voting against it, as SNP MPs will do today, that wasn’t what we meant.
“That’s what will happen, which is why Labour MPs will reluctantly vote for the deal because the alternative would be chaos.”
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