As political journeys go, it’s akin to Jeremy Corbyn quitting his allotment to grow marrows on an Israeli settlement. Nicola Sturgeon, a lifelong pro-European since June 24, 2016, has decreed that the SNP will vote against the free trade pact agreed by the UK and the EU.
This is quite the turnaround. Sturgeon has previously said ‘a no-deal Brexit is a catastrophic idea’, warned of ‘the dire economic consequences of a no-deal Brexit’, described ‘the nightmare scenario of a no-deal Brexit’ and urged the UK Government ‘not to countenance in any way a no-deal Brexit’. She personally claimed that no-deal ‘could push 130,000 people in Scotland into poverty’ and touted an assertion by Dame Sally Davies that, in Sturgeon’s words, ‘it cannot be guaranteed that people will not die because of potential medicine shortages and the impact of a no-deal Brexit’.
Last September, she informed Holyrood: ‘SNP MPs will do everything possible to stop the UK crashing out of the European Union without a deal.’
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