Nicola Sturgeon vows to stop ‘Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers’ dictating Scotland’s future

Speaking on the state of Brexit trade talks, Sturgeon said: “I want free trade between Scotland and the rest of the UK and I want to be part of the single market.

“We’re a month away from the end of the transition period and we don’t know what the UK relationship with the EU is going to be.”

She added: “Right now, our future is being dictated to us by Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers and the majority of people in Scotland do not want that.” 

Her remark provoked a strong rebuke from presenter Piers Morgan, who questioned her line of thinking.

“You don’t like the idea of Brexit. You don’t like the idea of us going off on our own for a big safe large entity,” he pointed out.

“And yet at the same time, you love the idea of doing that to the UK.

“Many people might be saying, ‘Hang on Nicola Sturgeon, where are you ideologically with this?’

“How can you want to be part of the European Union with all the issues that it raises but you don’t want to be a part of the United Kingdom?”

Sturgeon replied: “If the two things were the same you might have a point but they’re not. The European Union, and it’s not perfect, I don’t think it’s flawless, but it’s a union of independent countries.

“Contrast that with the UK where Scotland’s position in the UK right now means that we have no alternative but to be dragged out of the European Union against our will.

“If Scotland was independent our relationship with the rest of the UK doesn’t end.

“It becomes in my view better and stronger because we’d be a partnership of equals and that’s what the EU is.”

Sturgeon’s comment came after she issued a stark warning to the prime minister “not to stand in the way of” the outcome of next year’s Holyrood election.

The SNP has long touted the 2021 election as a de facto vote on a second referendum with a victory being seen as a ‘yes’ for a new vote. The party is predicted to win by a landslide.

Jack Elphinstone posted on Twitter: “Superb final words from Nicola Sturgeon to take the interview on GMB to a close. That last part is what will be remembered.”

Lee quipped: “A majority of people in England don’t want it either!” 

@ditchplastic1 was more critical, posting: “How does she know what the majority of Scottish people want? She lost the last referendum on independence.”

Paul H posted: “Why does your leader want independence and yet still tied to the EU? Doesn’t make sense.”

@NowScottish rebutted: “For the hard of thinking. Scotland voted decisively against Brexit, England voted for it. Brexit is being imposed on a country that wants no part of it by a bunch of Tories that England can’t stop voting for. Scotland hasn’t voted Tory since 1959. No respect.”