Meeting of the Parliament 30 January 2024
I agreed at that time that people should have a view and should be able to cast a vote in favour of the European Union. That was my support for there being a referendum at that stage. I also note that Mr Bibby did not take the opportunity to confirm whether the Scottish Labour Party’s position now is to rejoin the European single market and the customs union. I invite everybody to listen very closely to his speech in the debate to see whether he clarifies that.
I was making the point that Scottish businesses trading in the EU would have reduced barriers to trade and free flows of data as well as less bureaucracy, and that they would benefit from the EU’s network of highly favourable trading relationships across the world. Trading would be cheaper and quicker, online shopping would be easier and safer, and Scottish firms would be able to trade freely with more businesses and sell to more customers.
Indeed, EU membership would provide more job choices and more career opportunities for people in Scotland. Our citizens would have access to more training, more research, more exchange opportunities, and the opportunity to improve language skills through the Erasmus+ programme. We could attract and retain people from across the EU to sustain our businesses, our world-leading universities and our public services. Scotland would regain access to the EU’s law enforcement tools, which would help in the fight against cross-border crime and other threats. Our citizens’ rights, such as guaranteed minimum working conditions and social security rights, would be protected by EU law, and, of course, Scotland would, for the first time, have a seat in its own right at EU decision-making tables.
With a voice in debates and a vote on outcomes, Scotland could contribute directly to the policies of one of the most influential actors in global trade negotiations on international human rights and equality. The evidence is clear. For countries of Scotland’s size, EU membership works.
People here have a choice. We can continue down the road of a Brexit-based UK economy that suffers from low growth and low productivity, high inequality and increasing isolation—