Alex Salmond: SNP to fight '˜tooth & nail' against hard Brexit

Alex Salmond says the SNP will fight against a hard Brexit compromising Scottish interests. Picture: Michael Gillen.

The SNP’s International Affairs spokesperson also called on MPs from across the House to back the SNP in holding the government to account and voting on key amendments.

The call follows renewed criticism of the UK government’s White Paper, by the SNP, as nothing more than a “threadbare box ticking exercise” that was “not substantial enough to stop a door never mind start an international negotiation”.

The Westminster Parliament is set to begin debating over a hundred pages of amendments put forward by parties across the House tomorrow to the UK government’s legislation for leaving the EU.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision last month, the SNP tabled 50 amendments to the Article 50 legislation to force the Westminster government to address the key issues facing the UK, including the rights of EU citizens living and working in the UK, the ‘bad deal or no deal’ reset clause and seeking agreement with the devolved administrations through the Joint Ministerial Committee.

Alex Salmond MP commented:

“The Tory party may have been patting themselves on the back last week with their big Commons majorities. However they only look strong because Labour is weak. Their real majority in Parliament is wafer thin, rather like their excuse for a White Paper.

“But let this be a clear warning to the UK government. The SNP will fight tooth and nail to blunt the axe of a hard Brexit falling again this week.

“The SNP have tabled substantial and serious amendments to the government’s legislation, and we call on MPs from across the Chamber to build a cross party progressive alliance that will call a halt to this Mad Hatter’s Westminster tea party.

“Theresa May and her band of Brexiteers are living in a Wonderland where the Prime Minister is taking her party, most of the Labour party and the entire country into a hole of their own making.

“The UK government has set about severing links with one union already, and if it continues to act and push ahead with its hard Brexit then it can be sure that it will be testing the strength of another. Scotland has no intention of allowing our thousand year history as a European nation to be severed by a bunch of Westminster, born again Brexiteering Tories who have taken leave of their senses.

“The coming days in Parliament are an opportunity to drag this Tory government out of the hole and back to reality and MPs from across the Chamber should back the SNP and direct their challenge to the government to end this political madness.

“The SNP stand ready to present these amendments so that our economy, jobs and livelihoods of people across the UK are not left to a government with a threadbare White Paper, no coherent strategy, in thrall to the Trump administration and totally clueless on how to conduct a successful European negotiation. We intend to blunt the edge of hard Tory Brexit.”

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