Breakfast politics briefing: Jo Swinson appeals to Scots to not back SNP | No Deal would ‘wipe out’ growth, warns Derek Mackay

Jo Swinson will address the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth today

Swinson: Don’t back SNP to stop Brexit

Jo Swinson will use her first conference speech as Liberal Democrat leader to make a direct appeal to Scots not to back the SNP and independence as a way to escape Brexit. Scots have “a part to play in a growing, strengthening, winning campaign across the UK” to stay in the EU, Ms Swinson will tell Lib Dem delegates in Bournemouth today. (Full story in The Scotsman)

No-deal could ‘wipe out’ two years of Scottish growth

Scotland could see two years of economic growth “wiped out” in a “disastrous” recession after a looming no-deal Brexit, Scotland’s finance secretary Derek Mackay has warned.

Every day sounds “new warning bells”, the cabinet secretary says in a stark intervention in today’s Scotsman, with the threat to jobs, businesses and the economy becoming “more pronounced”.

Scots Tory MP joins ‘middle way’ Brexit group

Stephen Kerr has joined the cross-party group of “MPs for a deal,” who support a managed “middle way” exit from the EU on October 31. The group was formed earlier this month by Rory Stewart, the former International Development and one of the 21 Tory rebels expelled from the party, Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, and Sir Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat backbencher. (Read more in The Herald)

SNP plan would create “Little Britain, not new Scotland”

The SNP’s plans for independence would create a “little Brtain, not a new Scotland”, it has been claimed.

Patrick Harvie, co-leader of pro-independence Greens, has hit out at Nicola Sturgeon’s economic case for leaving the UK in the week of the fifth anniversary of the 2014 referendum. (Read more in The Scotsman)

Supreme Court to hear appeals over Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament

A legal battle over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks is set to be heard by the UK’s highest court.

The Supreme Court in London will hear appeals from two separate challenges brought in England and Scotland to the prorogation of Parliament over three days, starting on Tuesday. (Read more in The Courier)

On today’s agenda

- A legal battle over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks is set to be heard by the UK’s highest court.

- A full Cabinet meeting will be held at Downing Street following yesterday’s events in Luxembourg

- Willie Rennie will address the Lib Dem conference this morning

- A taskforce created to tackle the drug-death epidemic in Scotland is to meet for the first time today.