Brexit: SNP Minister warns that 100,000 jobs could go due to no-deal

About 100,000 Scots could lose their job in the event of a no-deal Brexit, MSPs have been told.

Mike Russell. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell warned that if the UK is forced to quit the European Union on March 29 with no agreement in place then “things will change, and change very fast for the worse”.

Scottish Finance Secretary Derek Mackay will publish a new paper on the economic cost of a no-deal Brexit later this week.

In a statement at Holyrood, Mr Russell said: “A no-deal Brexit could, we estimate, result in an increase in unemployment in Scotland of around 100,000 people, more than doubling the unemployment rate.

“We would go from a record low to a level not far off that at the depths of the last recession, with all the human costs which that would entail.”

He added: “Whatever we as a government do, and we will do everything we can, we simply could not avoid that sort of damage being done to our economy and our country.

“But one person could - the Prime Minister could.”