Nicola Sturgeon’s plot to derail Brexit dealt a body blow after Spanish vowed to block Scottish First Minister’s wrecking plans
Spanish MEPs said their government will not support her demand for Scotland to stay in the EU single market after the UK leaves the trading bloc.
NICOLA Sturgeon’s plans to derail Brexit were dealt a body blow after the Spanish vowed to block the Scottish First Minister’s wrecking plans.
In the biggest slap-down yet for the Nationalist boss, senior Spanish MEPs said their government will not support her demand for Scotland to stay in the EU single market after the UK leaves the trading bloc.
Esteban Gonzalez Pons, who leads his country’s delegation of MEPs in the European Parliament’s largest political grouping, said the First Minister’s proposals were “impossible”.
The announcement leaves Ms Sturgeon's “key demand” in tatters as she attempts to thrash out a deal with Theresa May.
And in a further blow the Welsh First Minister also weighed in to say he cannot see how a separate Brexit deal for Scotland “would work”.
Carwyn Jones said it would mean “customs posts at the borders” as “there is no other way to deal with” separate market access arrangements.
The row came ahead of the British Irish Council summit near Cardiff, where devolved leaders met to stress the need for unfettered access to the European Single Market for the whole of the UK.
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Pressed about proposals for Scotland to remain in the Single Market, Mr Gonzalez Pons said: “It’s impossible. Scotland, while it is part of the United Kingdom, has to be the same as the UK.
“We’re not going to accept Scotland in the single market without the rest of the UK.”
But Scottish External Affairs Secretary Fiona Hyslop hit back, claiming: “Nothing is impossible.”