SNP ministers want their Irish counterparts to publicly back the Scottish Government’s post-Brexit strategy when Nicola Sturgeon visits Dublin on Monday, a cabinet secretary has revealed.
Fiona Hyslop, the external affairs secretary, said talks have already started between the two administrations as the First Minister prepared to travel for meetings with Irish President Michael D Higgins and minister for foreign affairs and trade Charlie Flanagan.
In a bad tempered interview on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Ms Hyslop attempted to brush off a number of high profile rejections of her government’s attempts to secure a separate EU exit deal for Scotland.
Powerful Spanish MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons has said proposals for a special Scottish agreement are “impossible”, while Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones said such a set up could not “possibly work”.
Monica Maeland, the Norwegian minister of trade and industry has previously said Scotland did not have the competence to join the European Free Trade Association “as for now” because it is not independent.
Ms Hyslop argued she has met most European ambassadors and claimed most “are very sympathetic and understanding of the position Scotland is in”.
On Ireland, she said: “What we would like them to say is an understanding that the UK Government as a whole should get the best deal in terms of participation in the single market that protects our economic interests.
“If that is not possible, to be open minded – open minded – to consider a situation where there could be a differentiated deal within the United Kingdom in terms of what they put forward for Article 50.”
Ms Sturgeon said the relationship between Scotland and Ireland is “more important than ever” in the wake of the EU referendum.
She added: “I’ll be stressing the Scottish Government’s commitment to the principle of European solidarity and the benefits Scotland receives from membership of the European Single Market.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Secretary David Mundell thinks the UK will secure enough access to the single market to negate the requirement for a bespoke Scottish arrangement.
In another angry Sunday Politics Scotland interview, the sole Conservative MP north of the border said he was making that case within the UK cabinet.
He said: “Of course what I’m arguing for is that Scotland gets the best possible access to the single market but that is access I would want to see for the whole United Kingdom.
“I don’t think that we will need to see a separate Scottish deal about access to the single market because I want to see a United Kingdom deal that gives the best possible access to that single market.”
