A ‘dangerous’
no-deal Brexit is now ‘almost inevitable’ with Boris Johnson in Downing Street,
Nicola Sturgeon has warned.
The UK’s new Prime
Minister was booed and heckled by protesters as he met for the first time with
the Scottish First Minister’s at her Edinburgh residence today.
Mr Johnson insisted
there was a ‘very good chance we can get a deal’ but accepted there was ‘no
change’ in the position of EU leaders.
Brussels have been
consistent that they will not renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement reached by
Theresa May.
But Mr Johnson is
adamant ‘there is amply scope to do a new deal and a better deal’. Ms Sturgeon
said: ‘After my discussions with Boris Johnson, behind all of the bluff and
bluster, this is a government that is dangerous.
‘He
says publicly – and he said it to me again today – that he wants a deal with
the EU, but there is no clarity whatsoever about how he thinks he can get from
the position now where he’s taking a very hard line – the withdrawal agreement
is dead, the backstop is dead.
‘If
I listen to all of that and listen to what’s not being said as well as what is
being said, I think that this is a government that is pursuing a no-deal
strategy, however much they may deny that in public.’
The
SNP leader added: ‘I think, if he were in this room right now, he would deny
this vehemently, but I think he wants a no-deal Brexit.’
She
spoke out as Mr Johnson made his first visit to Scotland since becoming Prime
Minister, starting with a tour round the HMS Victorious nuclear submarine on
the Faslane naval base on the Clyde.
He
then went on to have meetings in Edinburgh with Scottish Tory leader Ruth
Davidson – who has made plain her opposition to a no-deal Brexit – as well as
the First Minister.
After
his meeting with Ms Sturgeon, Mr Johnson left Bute House by the back door.
The
new Prime Minister used his visit to insist there is ‘no reason’ for Scots to
have the second independence referendum Nicola Sturgeon is pushing for and hit
out at the SNP’s ‘campaign to destroy the union’.
He
refused to unequivocally rule out granting Holyrood permission for a second
independence referendum. But he said comments that the 2014 ballot was a ‘once
in a generation’ event must be respected.
He
added: ‘It was a once-in-a-generation consultation of the people, we did it in
2014 and the people were assured then that it was a once-in-a-generation
consultation.
‘I see no reason now for the politicians to go back on that
promise.’
But
Ms Sturgeon made clear her desire for Scots ‘to chart their own course and
choose their own future’.
She
told BBC News: ‘I made abundantly clear to Boris Johnson my opposition to
Brexit and a no-deal Brexit, and also made it clear to him the people of
Scotland should be able to chart their own course and choose their own future,
not have that future imposed upon them.’
She
said Mr Johnson had ‘set the UK on an almost inevitable path to a no-deal
Brexit’.
Ms
Sturgeon added: ‘The position it has taken makes it very difficult to see how
any deal can be struck with the EU and I think that would be catastrophic for
Scotland and the whole of the UK.’
A
Number 10 spokesman said Mr Johnson told the First Minister ‘he was a
passionate believer in the power of the Union and he would work tirelessly to
strengthen the United Kingdom and improve the lives of people right across Scotland’
He
added: ‘On Brexit, the Prime Minister said that while the Government’s
preference is to negotiate a new deal which abolishes the anti-democratic
backstop, the UK will be leaving the EU on October 31 come what may.’
Source: Metro.co.uk
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