Britain, EU reach draft Brexit deal

“Draft Brexit deal ‘devastating’ for Scotland”

Scotland’s pro-independence leader has voiced her opposition to a draft Brexit agreement that would reportedly leave Northern Ireland in the European single market. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who wants Scotland to be allowed to remain in the single market and the customs union, said that the deal would give Northern Ireland an unfair advantage. “That would be devastating for investment and jobs in Scotland,” Sturgeon, who heads the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), said in a video posted on her Twitter page. She said it would be “the worst of all possible worlds” But she added that the deal could still be voted down by the British parliament, which could open the way for “better options” including single market membership for Britain as a whole.

Ross Thomson, a Scottish MP from Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party, which is in opposition to the SNP in Scotland, also said that the deal was “unacceptable”. “I fought head, heart, body and soul to save our Union in 2014,” he said referring to a Scottish referendum on independence. If the news reports are true the backstop would result in Northern Ireland diverging unconsciously from the UK and it would fundamentally undermine our Union, breaking it up by the back door.”    Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union by 63 per cent in the 2016 referendum but the overall national vote was 52 per cent in favour of leaving the block

British Prime Minister Theresa May has hailed her draft European Union divorce deal but must convince ministers to back her plan amid open hostility from some of her own members of Parliament who say it threatens the United Kingdom’s unity. Her minority government means May is the weakest British leader in a generation, yet she must try to get her Brexit deal, struck after more than a year of talks with the EU, approved by Parliament before leaving the bloc on March 29, 2019. “I’m confident that this takes us significantly closer to delivering on what the British people voted for in the referendum,” May told Parliament. Britons voted 52-48 percent in favour of leaving the EU in 2016.