Theresa May has been accused of hypocrisy for arguing an independent Scotland’s economy would be damaged outside the UK - at the same time as she prepares to take the UK out of the EU single market.
The PM was speaking in Glasgow on Friday when she slammed campaigners trying to “wrench Scotland out of its biggest market” by calling for a second independence referendum.
May said that “time and again the benefits of the Union – of doing together, collectively, what would be impossible to do apart – are clear”.
“And yet the SNP propose Scottish independence, which would wrench Scotland out of its biggest market.
“They think independence is the answer to every question in every circumstance, regardless of fact and reality.
“It simply does not add up and we should never stop saying so.”
But her pro-UK union comments sparked anger from the SNP, who accused May of “mind-boggling hypocrisy”.
The party’s deputy leader Angus Robertson said: “This was an ironic, hypocritical and surreal speech from Theresa May, who before the EU referendum supported a campaign warning that leaving Europe would be a disaster, but is now determined to pull us over the cliff edge of an economically catastrophic hard Brexit.
“Theresa May is guilty of mind-boggling hypocrisy — it is her government’s constitutional obsession with a hard Brexit which is directly threatening Scottish jobs and livelihoods.
“In those circumstances, we have a duty to stand up for Scotland, and to have a plan in place to protect our vital national interests.”
Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges also wrote on Twitter: