SNP accused of '˜weaponising Brexit' to boost support for indyref2

Ruth Davidson has accused the SNP of 'weaponising Brexit'. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Ms Davidson insisted the case for Scotland leaving the UK is “weaker than ever” following the Brexit vote and the economic importance of the UK single market – which is four times more lucrative than the EU.

It came as Labour leader Kezia Dugdale stepped her calls for a federal UK which she claimed would begin to fix a “failure of politics” reflected in support for Scottish independence and the vote for Brexit.

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond warned at the weekend that a second independence vote is likely to be staged next year.

It comes as the Scottish Government’s demand for a “differentiated” deal to allow the country remain in the lucrative EU single market looks likely to be rejected by the UK government.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned this makes the case for so called “indyref2” all but inevitable after a majority of Scots voted to Remain in the EU, but the weight of votes south of the Border swung the result for Leave.

Scotland’s opposition leader Ms Davidson says that Scotland is “stubbornly split” on the independence issue.

Polling suggests opinion remains around the same as 2014 when 45 per cent backed independence with 55 per cent voting to stay in the UK, she told an audience in London.

But the Tory leader said: “I am not complacent one bit about the state of the Union post Brexit. The SNP is a formidable political operation which – I suspect – has learnt from the tactics of the Leave campaign last year and is itching to get its own campaign bus into gear as we speak.

“So my view is that the case for the Union must be made afresh, and we have to persuade people once again that our own Union of nations still works for us all.”

An emerging, “Brexit paradox” was also highlighted by Ms Davidson who said the EU vote serves to crystallise the importance of UK membership to Scotland.

“While Brexit has provided the means for Nicola Sturgeon to crank up her independence campaign once more – it has also made that case weaker and more illogical than ever,” she said.

“As we learned only last month in official Scottish Government statistics, trade within the UK internal market is worth four times to Scotland than trade with the EU.

“The logic is therefore clear. If everyone in Scotland agrees that free trade with Europe is important – and we do – it is literally impossible to deny that trade with the rest of the UK matters four times as much. But rather than accept that logic, the same old nationalist contortions are applied.

“It is already cranking up the grievance machine in an attempt to push people towards the exit door.”

Meanwhile, Ms Dugdale used an address at University College London to reiterate her opposition to a second independence referendum and back a federal UK.

She said: “Brexit represented a failure of our politics. People willing to take a leap in the dark and vote for independence represented a failure of our politics.

“And in the face of it, governing parties haven’t just ignored the problem. They’ve doubled down on the disastrous policies that got us here in the first place, and now, even after all that we’ve gone through; we’re making the same mistakes again.

A spokesman for the SNP accused the Tories of “complete shambles” in their handling of Brexit and imposing this on Scotland “despite our overwhelming Remain vote.”

“After the Brexit vote, Ruth Davidson said that protecting our place in the single market should be the ‘overriding priority’,” the spokesman added.

“Now the born-again Brexiteers in the Scottish Tories expect us to let Theresa May push on with a hard Brexit that could cost 80,000 jobs in Scotland over the next decade.”