Brexit chaos driving more Scots to independence

Few people expected this election would even happen. But what an opportunity it became.

The SNP asked the people of Scotland to use their vote to send a message – and to say that Scotland is not for Brexit. They did that with gusto.

The numbers are spectacular. The SNP’s best-ever European result. The highest vote share of any party in Western Europe. The largest margin of victory for any party in a European election.

I set out the scale of the SNP’s success not out of triumphalism, but to make a point.

The Tories and Labour both went into the election pledging to push ahead with Brexit – but when it comes to the details have been clear as mud.

Neither party can say clearly what they want from leaving the EU. Both are hopelessly divided.

No wonder voters took one look at the UK Government, another look at the official opposition, and thought better of picking either of them.

It’s no hyperbole to say that both Labour and the Tories have faced an historic and humiliating defeat – both in Scotland, and across the whole of the UK.

And now we face the prospect of Tory leadership candidates trying to out-Farage each other in order to win the keys to Downing Street.

The likes of Boris Johnson will no doubt use the success of the Brexit Party as a license to push for the hardest of hard Brexits.

In Scotland, that would rightly be seen as an economic catastrophe and a democratic outrage.

In 2016, we said we wanted to Remain. On Thursday, we made clear that we still meant it.

Brexit has become all-consuming in Westminster but, despite asking MPs time and time again, we are further away than ever from agreeing a deal.

We can’t now have Scotland’s voice side-lined by the circus of a Tory leadership election. And we certainly can’t accept a new Prime Minister, with only the narrow mandate of an internal Tory election, dictating the future of our country.

Any new Tory leader should go back to the people and seek a fresh mandate – and, unlike our opponents, the SNP would relish the prospect of a new General Election.

But it’s clear that only a second EU referendum, with Remain on the ballot, can break the logjam.

If the only future Westminster can offer is the chaos of an extreme Brexit, more and more people will come to the conclusion that Scotland’s future is best served as an independent country. An independent future that we are determined the people of Scotland will have the opportunity to vote for.