INTERIM Tory leader Jackson Carlaw was left red-faced at First Minister’s Questions after he accused the SNP leader of undermining Brexit negotiations.
With Boris Johnson saying he was treating today as the first day of the General Election campaign, his right hand man in Scotland tried to take the fight to the SNP.
Carlaw said Nicola Sturgeon did not want to see “successful negotiations between the UK and the EU”.
“She wants the negotiations to fail,” he said.
The SNP leader pointed out that there weren’t any negotiations happening at the moment for her to undermine.
In a heated exchange, Carlaw twice urged Sturgeon to say if she wanted a deal or not.
Responding, the second time the First Minister replied: "I can't say this any more simply, so I'll try and say it a bit more slowly and perhaps a bit more loudly. I don't want Scotland to leave the European Union".
She added: “If Jackson Carlaw is asking me to give an opinion on some mythical deal that he believes unlike most other people that Boris Johnson is on the verge of agreeing with the European Union then tell us what he thinks the content of that deal is and then I will happily give him an opinion on it.
“But right now there are no negotiations that we know of, the so-called efforts to strike a deal have been called a 'sham'. The European Union don't know if the negotiations are making progress the way Boris Johns tries to tell us, so clearly Jackson Carlaw is suggesting he knows something the rest of us don't. So share it with us now so we can have a meaningful discussion about it.“ Carlaw replied: “Let's spell it out the First Minister doesn't want to see successful negotiations between the UK and the EU she wasn't the negotiations to fail.
“It's not in her interests to strengthen the UK's hands in those talks,” he argued. “She wants to weaken the UK's hands in those talks.
“She doesn't want people in Scotland to move on from this, she's determined to keep it dragging on and on and on.
“Isn't it the case that when it comes to this First Minister she’s never seen a referendum she doesn’t want to overturn."
Sturgeon pointed out that she wasn’t trying to overturn the Brexit referendum result: “I want to see it honoured. People in scotland voted to remain in the EU.”
Carlaw said an election would be likely to sort out Brexit. He told MSPs: "If you want more years of division vote Nicola Sturgeon, "If you want to get back to the things that matter, schools, job, police, the public's business, vote for us.
"That is the clear choice that Scotland now faces."
The SNP leader told the Tory leader her party would welcome the vote. She said: "If the Conservatives had any confidence whatsoever in that message Ruth Davidson would be standing right now where Jackson Carlaw is.
"She can't stomach the direction Boris Johnson is taking the country. Boris Johnson's own brother can't stomach the direction he's taking the country.
"The question is why should the people of Scotland be forced to put up with it."
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