Hansard

The fishing fleet will build up. We have five years to build up our fishing fleet as we become an independent coastal state, and, crucially, as the fleet has access to market.

The First Minister has not answered the point that the debate is not about being in or out of the EU. We are voting today on whether there is a deal or no deal, and she is marching her troops into the no-deal voting lobby and giving up all that.

However, let us listen to other third parties. The reaction of Scottish businesses to the deal is positive. Of course, that counts for nothing with an SNP that is determined to grandstand and politic, as we have just seen. The Federation of Small Businesses has said:

“it’s a huge relief to see negotiators finally strike a deal.”

The Confederation of British Industry has said that it is

“A huge relief for both the UK & EU economies”,

and the NFU Scotland has said that

“It is good news ... that a deal has been done ... No deal would have been no good to Scottish farming”.

Tavish Scott, formerly of this parish, now of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, has said:

“We are pleased the negotiators have at last secured a deal. This will alleviate some of the serious problems that would come from a ‘no deal’ Brexit.”

All of Scotland’s main business groups say that we should back the deal in order to protect jobs and our national prosperity. However, the SNP Government says, “No—we will vote against it anyway.” The feckless and useless SNP tribute act that is Scottish Labour will fall in behind it, even as Keir Starmer does the right thing.

How did we get here, given that Nicola Sturgeon said that she, her party and her Government would do anything, and work with anyone, in order to get a deal? Now that a deal has been presented that has been backed by the EU and by Scotland’s businesses, and which will stop the no deal that she says she wants to avoid at all costs, what does she do? She orders her troops into the Westminster division lobbies, carrying the “No-deal Nicola” banners high.

Throughout this entire process, when it has come to the big calls, the SNP has asked one question of itself. It has not been to ask what can be practically delivered, but to ask how Brexit can be used to crank up grievance and to promote the only thing that Nicola Sturgeon has ever cared about—independence. The SNP has gone from backing an election that would deliver a pro-Brexit majority while driving a “Stop Brexit” bus, and from striking down three times a withdrawal agreement that would have delivered many of the provisions that its members claim to want, then howling as that turned them into the handmaidens of something with no such provision, to talking up the catastrophe of no deal and even trying to pass a law to ban it and, today, trooping into the lobbies to vote for no deal.

That is because never once did SNP members think about practical delivery, Rather, they were always focused solely on their own narrow political game playing. The truth is that for SNP members it was never really about the substance of leaving the European Union. They do not want to go there; after all, the party espouses the idea that separation from one union is a betrayal, but separation from another, which is deeper and more valuable, is a necessity. It has always been solely about weaponising the referendum result, in order to widen the divisions on which it thrives.

Today, SNP members had the chance to show that they were prepared to change course and to accept the indisputable facts that the UK left the EU on 31 January and that tomorrow we leave the transitional arrangement. Today, they had the chance to do the responsible thing—to help to lay a firm foundation for our new relationship with the EU. Instead, they are trying to take a sledgehammer to it—to scupper the only deal in town, which was carefully negotiated with the EU, unanimously approved by the ambassadors of all 27 EU member states, and signed this morning by the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council. The SNP’s calculation is this: crank up the outrage, the grievance and the division, and hang the consequences.

At the start of this month, Nicola Sturgeon said:

“I very much hope we will see breakthroughs in these talks literally over the course of today ... I think the UK Government has to ‘get real’ and really understand the implications for the NHS and across the economy if ... no deal”

is “agreed.” The First Minister needs to “get real” if she thinks that she can stoke up grievance over no deal, and then march her troops into the lobbies today to vote for it without people seeing that for exactly what it is. Once again, the SNP’s own political game is coming first. Hypocrisy? You could not mark Nicola Sturgeon’s neck with a blowtorch.

I move amendment S5M-23815.2, to leave out from “considers” to end and insert:

“recognises that the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020; congratulates both the EU and UK negotiating teams on securing the landmark Trade and Cooperation Agreement in a constrained timeframe; notes that the deal helps secure £660 billion of Scottish and UK trade to support Scottish jobs and businesses; recognises that the First Minister has described an exit from the EU without such an agreement as ‘catastrophic’ for Scotland; notes that the only way to avoid such a no-deal outcome is to support the deal that has been agreed; welcomes the fact that all 27 EU member states have unanimously approved the deal, and therefore consents to the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill negotiated between the EU and the UK Government.”