How would the SNP address the economic damage of Brexit?

Our economy is needlessly suffering billions of pounds worth of loss thanks to a Westminster Brexit that Scotland did not vote for. Scotland is paying a high price for a failing Brexit that we were promised wouldn’t happen in 2014 – with the full economic consequences of exiting the EU still to be fully realised.

EU membership is the best option for Scotland – and the SNP will continue to be the only major party in the UK campaigning for Scotland to re-join the EU. We are clear that both our security and our economy need much tighter ties with Europe, and that means rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union.

The abrupt end of free movement left Scotland with no flexibility to address the impacts of labour shortages in vital sectors of our economy and public services. Scotland requires an immigration system which welcomes people and a system suited to our specific economic needs.

Ignoring the damage of Brexit is ignoring the cost of living, the economy and fundamentally the views of Scotland. Brexit is not just a political error, it is a slow motion crisis. It is making people poorer, isolating our NHS, harming Scottish businesses, and stealing opportunities from our young people.

In Brexit Britain, Scotland has increasingly been distanced not only from the European Single Market – almost seven times the size of the UK Internal Market – but also from the community of sovereign European nations with which we share, and have achieved, so much.

Brexit has put additional costs on businesses and reduced choice. Consumers are having to pay higher prices for food, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis. Scotland has lost out economically, socially, politically, and culturally as a consequence.

It is time for everyone to be honest about the deepening damage caused by the political choice to embrace the economic disaster of a hard Brexit.

Independence is the only realistic route for Scotland to regain the benefits of EU membership. For the first time, Scotland would be at the table as a full member state, advancing our interests directly in the EU institutions and working in the common European interest.

We are clear that an SNP-led Scottish Government would apply to join the EU as soon as possible after independence.