Prime Minister Theresa May does not have a mandate to take any part of Britain out of the European Union’s single market, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday, upping the stakes in talks for Britain to leave the bloc.
May has said Britain will be leaving the EU after 52% of voters backed Brexit at a June 23 referendum. While England and Wales voted to leave, the Scots and Northern Irish backed staying in the bloc, complicating divorce proceedings.
“We will seek to use whatever influence we have to shape the best, or the least bad option,” Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament, providing an update on Scotland’s drive to keep its EU membership.
“In my view, that does mean the UK continuing as a member of the single market. I accept that the prime minister has a mandate in England and Wales to leave the EU, but I do not accept that she has a mandate to take any part of the UK out of the single market.”
Continuing to have access to the single market without being an EU member would mean taking part in the trade area without having a say over its rules.
Support for EU membership among Scots in the June ‘Brexit’ referendum was 62%, putting Scotland at odds with much of the rest of Britain.
Sturgeon, who leads the devolved Scottish government, has raised the possibility of another independence referendum. Scots voted against secession just two years ago.
“Our guiding principle will continue to be at all times the best interests of the people of Scotland.”
Sturgeon said she had held meetings with high-ranking EU officials after the June vote, including the prime minister of Malta who she said was likely to hold the EU presidency when the legal mechanism for Britain to leave the bloc is triggered. 
May meanwhile again refused to say whether the UK could remain in the EU single market after Brexit, using her first prime minister’s questions since the summer recess to say she would not give a “running commentary on negotiations”.
Following an exchange with Jeremy Corbyn on housing in which the prime minister mercilessly mocked the divisions in the Labour party – “We’re not going to let them anywhere near power again,” she said at one point.
May was questioned by Angus Robertson on Brexit. The SNP’s Westminster leader asked May twice whether she planned for a Brexit deal to include full access to the EU’s single market in goods and services, as hoped for by many businesses.
May dodged the question both times, saying only that she would seek “the right deal for the trade in goods and services with the European Union in a new relationship we will be building with them”.
Amid some jeers in the Commons, she added: “That new relationship will include control of the movement of people from the EU into the UK, and it will include the right deal for the trade in goods and services. That is how to approach it.”
“It would not be right for me or this government to give a running commentary on negotiations.”
Immediately after prime minister’s questions, May made a statement to the Commons on this week’s G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, beginning with an update on the Brexit process.
While giving no more details, she promised a specific British variant on non-membership association with the EU, one that would be “ambitious and bold”.
She said: “It is not about the Norway model or the Swiss model or any other country’s model – it is about developing our own British model.”
“So we will not take decisions until we are ready. We will not reveal our hand prematurely and we will not provide a running commentary on every twist and turn of the negotiation. And I say that because that is not the best way to conduct a strong and mature negotiation that will deliver the best deal for the people of this country.”
In response, Corbyn said it was clear there had been a lack of planning for a Brexit vote. “The prime minister said she wouldn’t reveal her hand on this subject. Nobody would blame her because she hasn’t revealed her hand or indeed any of the government’s many hands. They’re unclear on what they’re trying to do.”
“We accept the decision taken by the majority of our people but we cannot ignore the fact that the outcome has left this country divided, with rising levels of hate crime, huge uncertainty about what comes next for our country, the extraordinary lack of planning and preparation.”


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