SNP MPs will vote against Brexit deal, Nicola Sturgeon confirms

SNP MPs will vote against the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

Appearing on the Andrew Marr show, the FM said a lack of clarity over the future relationship between the UK and EU meant MPs would be voting on a ‘blindfold Brexit’.

The comments come after Michael Gove and four other Cabinet ministers launched plans to try to force Theresa May to change her plan for Brexit, despite statements from the EU ruling out any form of re-negotiation.

The PM will use a speech to business leaders to argue her deal delivers on the result of the referendum, telling the CBI annual conference that: “Getting back full control of our borders is an issue of great importance to the British people”.

But the First Minister is now set to meet Jeremy Corbyn and other opposition leaders to discuss potential alternatives, including plans to keep the UK within the single market and the customs union, and the option of a second vote.

Sturgeon said: "The withdrawal agreement has lots of flaws within it, and fundamentally, there is no clarity whatsoever about the future between the UK and the EU.

"The House of Commons is going to be asked to effectively endorse a 'blindfold Brexit', where all the difficult issues that have dogged these negotiations for two-and-a-half years are simply kicked further down the road.

"I think it would be a mistake and deeply irresponsible for the House of Commons to endorse that."

Meanwhile Labour Shadow Scottish Secretary Lesley Laird warned the PM would not be able to gather enough parliamentary support to get her deal through the Commons.

She said: "The deal on the table is absolutely a broken deal and it has no consensus. It will not get through parliament.

"At this juncture we need to take the parliamentary procedures and use that towards a meaningful vote. We need to build a consensus on what is the way forward.

"All options must remain on the table. We are in the situation we are in now because the conservatives have taken all the options off the table from the outset.

"We've seen the deal. Now we must start to find what the plan is. Theresa May should now go back to Europe and say we can't get this through parliament. She needs to start renegotiating the deal."