Scotland’s Sturgeon says Boris Johnson aiming for no-deal Brexit, despite rhetoric otherwise
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she suspects the new UK prime minister has no interest in renegotiating Britain’s European exit, and that Boris Johnson is instead looking to leave the EU without a deal.
After a meeting with the new PM in Edinburgh on Monday, Sturgeon said it remained unclear how Johnson could make a new exit deal when the EU has repeatedly refused to renegotiate the agreement reached with his predecessor, Theresa May.
“That makes me think that whatever Boris Johnson might be saying publicly about his preference being to strike a deal, in reality he is really pursuing a no-deal Brexit because that is the logic of the hardline position that he has taken,” Sturgeon said.
Though Johnson has said he would prefer to flesh out a new Brexit agreement, he has insisted Britain would exit the multi-national body by the October 31 deadline “come what may.”
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Former British MP George Galloway noted that Johnson was met without much warmth in Edinburgh.
“Boris Johnson got a very chilly reception in Scotland today,” Galloway told RT. “[Sturgeon is] completely opposed to Boris Johnson, completely opposed to a no deal Brexit, probably not even in favor of a Brexit at all.”
Scotland put up staunch opposition to the 2017 Brexit vote, and Sturgeon herself has been critical of the move. She has called on the British government to overturn the leave effort and remain in the EU – and if that were not an option, she would prefer a compromise agreement that keeps the European single market and Customs Union intact.
Sturgeon’s disdain for Johnson is a sign of “hypocrisy,” Galloway said, given her party’s support for Scottish independence – it’s own form of ‘Brexit’ – which the country voted down by a 55 percent majority in 2014.
“It’s ironic,” Galloway said. “She says Boris Johnson is driving the UK to destruction, but her party exists to destroy the UK, by breaking up a small island of English-speaking people and having an independent Scottish state.”
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