Time for Jeremy Corbyn to get off the Brexit fence and back the single market

In the last week, everything we feared about the UK Government’s handling of the Brexit negotiations turned out to be true.

On Monday, having flown to Brussels to shake hands on the long-overdue first part of the deal, Theresa May was forced to perform an embarrassing last minute U-turn.

After a phone call from DUP leader Arlene Foster, the Prime Minister quickly scrapped her own deal and flew back to a Government in crisis at Westminster.

It turns out that, in addition to the dodgy £1billion bung the DUP were given to prop up the minority Tory Government, they have also been given a veto over the UK’s Brexit deal.

It is shocking that while the Tories have tried to overlook and undermine Scotland’s interests in these negotiations, the DUP’s 10 MPs have been handed the power to dictate a deal that will have a damaging impact on our country for decades to come.

If that wasn’t bad enough, on Wednesday, Tory Brexit Minister David Davis had to admit that the UK Government still haven’t produced detailed assessments of Brexit’s impact on the economy.

Instead, the Tories appear to be negotiating this major deal utterly blindfolded – without even knowing what impact their extreme Brexit plans could have on people’s jobs, incomes and livelihoods.

Every one of us will end up paying the price for Tory incompetence.

We are now at a critical point in the Brexit negotiations. If the extreme Brexiteers get their way, the UK will be dragged out of the European single market and customs union – the world’s largest trading block.

This will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK and it will hit people’s incomes, livelihoods and living standards. Ordinary people cannot afford to pay the price of this looming economic catastrophe.

That’s why I fully support SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who has urged Jeremy Corbyn to get behind cross-party calls to keep the UK in the single market and customs union. If the Labour Party join the SNP to fight for our single market membership, we could stop this devastation to jobs and the economy.

With the exception of staying in the EU, remaining in the single market is by far the best compromise and the least damaging option – and with a cross-party effort, a parliamentary majority is within touching distance.

So please Jeremy, get off the fence and join us.