HOURS after rumours circulated that he was on the brink of resigning, David Mundell backed the Prime Minister to the hilt saying he was “content” with the Brexit draft agreement.
That was despite the Secretary of State for Scotland having added his name to a letter from all Scottish Tory MPs warning Theresa May that the Withdrawal Agreement must include a commitment to restore “complete control and full sovereignty” over the UK’s fishing waters.
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Mundell had viewed the draft agreement on Tuesday night, and his support for the letter suggested he was anything but content.
Publication of the missive saw Ladbrokes slash odds on the veteran Scots MP being the next minister to quit May’s cabinet and started furious speculation among press that he was about to go imminently.
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The Scots Tories were rattled after leaked notes from Brussels negotiator Sabine Weyand reportedly said Britain “would have to swallow a link between access to products and fisheries in future agreements”.
“We should be in the best negotiation position for the future relationship. This requires the customs union as the basis of the future relationship,” Weyand added.
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In their letter to the Prime Minister, the Scottish MPs said: “You have made welcome statements throughout the Brexit negotiations that leaving the EU will mean leaving the Common Fisheries Policy and negotiating as an independent coastal state from December 2020.
“You said in your conference speech that anything less would be a ‘betrayal of Scotland’ and we completely agree.”
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Scottish Tory MP Ross Thomson, an ardent Brexiteer and a supporter of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s European Research Group, took to Twitter to voice his concerns: “I will accept nothing less than full sovereignty over our own waters.”
Mundell and Ruth Davidson had already threatened to resign if May’s deal with the EU resulted in “Northern Ireland having a different relationship with the EU than the rest of the UK”.
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Even though the draft agreement published last night refers explicitly to “Northern Ireland specific regulatory alignment,” the Scottish Secretary said he’d been reassured.
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, he said: I was content to move to the next stage of the process on the basis that Brexit will deliver for our fishing industry – as I and colleagues set out in our letter – and on the basis that arrangements for Northern Ireland will not undermine the economic or constitutional integrity of the UK.”
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“I hope there will be agreement at the European Council later this month and we can move to a vote in Parliament. The worst possible outcome for Scotland and the whole of the UK would be a no deal departure from the EU.”
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