Nicola Sturgeon warns of ‘monumental damage’ from UK rupture with EU

LONDON: Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon appealed across the political divide to help keep Britain in the single market after it leaves the European Union.

Speaking as her Scottish National Party begins its annual conference in Glasgow, Sturgeon said the British government’s plan to leave the single market would inflict “monumental damage” on all parts of the UK.

“Let’s stay in the single market and stay in the customs union,” she told the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “We should not simply accept that these things are off the table any more. The arithmetic in the House of Commons is such that we should continue to argue for common sense.”

Staying in the single market would require Britain to keep paying the EU, accept the trade bloc’s regulations and allow free movement of people, obligations Prime Minister Theresa May insists are unacceptable. But pro-EU Tories and the opposition Labour Party back doing so, at least for an extended transition period after Brexit in March 2019. That poses a problem for a weakened Tory government following the loss of its parliamentary majority in June’s general election.