The Scottish Parliament debated whether to give legislative consent to the Bill putting the new trade deal with the EU into operation.
Liberal Democrats voted against, and Willie Rennie explained why:
This debate needs a bit of realism. The deal is going through. It’s going to go through because Boris Johnson has an eighty-seat majority, he has his Euro Sceptics on board and even the bulk of the Labour Party is backing it.
So no deal has, finally, been taken off the table.
But just because we accept Brexit is happening, that there is a deal and it is going through does not mean we have to like it.
We are realistic but we won’t swallow all our deep reservations about Brexit and especially this deal.
In no way is anyone compelled to vote for something they think will be bad for the country.
And after all the Brexit chaos this Conservative Government have inflicted on millions of people for years and after the Scottish Conservatives promised they would never back a deal that gave separate treatment to Northern Ireland, that party is in no position to lecture anyone else today.
There should be no surprise that we can’t support the Conservatives on Brexit today because our support for Europe has been resolute for decades.
From the liberals support for yes in the ‘75 referendum, the Gang of Four in the 80s and Paddy Ashdown bailing out John Major to support the Maastricht Treaty in the 90s to our enthusiastic support for remain in 2016 and our advocacy of a people’s vote for the last four years.
People who believe in a strong relationship with Europe can count on us.
We do not use Europe as a weapon in another battle, to be discarded when no longer useful.
We believe in international partnership and cooperation especially with our closest neighbours.
It is why we support keeping the UK together and believe the lessons from Brexit should be the lessons for those who advocate independence.
This is a bad deal. The Prime Minister ran down the clock in the most cynical fashion to give parliamentarians just three working days to read, analyse, scrutinise and vote on 1246 pages of complex legal text. That is not good government.
Giving companies just a week to get ready is not good business. Where is the sensible easement arrangement?
We will be the first country in the world to put trade barriers up as a result of a trade deal.
The Prime Minister claims no quotas or tariffs on goods. But if the UK diverges, and that was the point of Brexit was it not, there will be heavy punitive tariffs and quotas. Those quotas and tariffs will hang around like a bad smell for years.