Theresa May is set to rebuff a bid by Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon for a flexible Brexit deal, as Downing Street faces growing pressure to create special arrangements for favoured industries.
Ms Sturgeon wants to secure Scotland’s place in the single market, even if England and Wales opt for a harder Brexit deal.
“Scotland — which voted overwhelmingly to remain in Europe — must be able to secure a continuing close relationship with Europe, including membership of the single market,” the first minister writes in the Financial Times on Monday.
Ms Sturgeon, who will join political leaders from Wales and Northern Ireland for a summit at Downing Street on Monday, said she does not accept that Mrs May has a mandate to take “any part of the UK” out of the single market. She called the support of some Conservative ministers for a so-called “hard Brexit” “politically unwarranted” and “economically ill-advised”.
She also proposed the creation of “a cross-party coalition to avert a hard Brexit for the UK as a whole”.
Ms Sturgeon’s comments suggest that a flexible, two-tier Brexit is likely to be a key negotiating demand for the devolved administrations.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has already mooted a separate work-permit scheme for the capital, while the government has hinted at the possibility of some kind of carve-out or compensation for major exporters including carmakers such as Nissan, if they are hit with tariffs as a consequence of Britain’s departure from the EU.
“If [Westminster] is prepared to countenance such arrangements for different sectors, there is no reason for it not to consider a flexible Brexit for different regions too, particularly for those parts of the UK which voted decisively to remain in Europe,” Ms Sturgeon writes.
Ms Sturgeon will meet Mrs May in Downing Street on Monday along with Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones, Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster and her deputy Martin McGuinness.
However, Mrs May is expected to resist any bid to create Brexit exemptions or special treatment.
The prime minister will tell them that no final decisions have been made on Britain's EU exit strategy and its final form will not necessarily involve a binary choice. However, a Tory aide said that flexible Brexit was “not on the table — we leave as one UK and have one new relationship, no exemptions”.
Downing Street will also block the devolved administrations from playing a direct role in the Brexit negotiations, instead setting up a new joint ministerial committee as a forum for them to liaise with Westminster.
[Scotland will] consider independence if it becomes clear that is the best or the only way of protecting our interests
It will include a subcommittee on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU which will be chaired by Brexit secretary David Davis. The subcommittee will meet at least twice before Christmas in the run-up to Britain triggering Article 50, which Mrs May has said will happen by the end of March.
The Scottish government is going to draw up its own proposal for how it could remain in the single market, and will present it to the new committee for discussion, Ms Sturgeon said.
Scotland will “consider independence if it becomes clear that is the best or the only way of protecting our interests”, Ms Sturgeon writes.
The prime minister has said she will resist a second Scottish independence referendum.
Mrs May said that she wants to ensure that “as we make a success of our exit from the European Union, we in turn further strengthen our own enduring union”.
“The great union between us has been the cornerstone of our prosperity in the past — and it is absolutely vital to our success,” she said.
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