Greer: Mundell giving workers no assurances over Brexit
A Green MSP has accused the Scottish secretary of playing down the threat that Brexit will have on jobs and wages.
Ross Greer, the Scottish Greens’ external affairs spokesperson, quizzed David Mundell at a meeting of Holyrood’s Europe committee about the economic impact that Brexit will have on workers’ in Scotland.
Greer also asked the Scottish secretary if he was “afraid of a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario”, following comments from Liam Fox that he was not afraid of crashing out without a deal.
West of Scotland MSP, Ross Greer said:
“Mr Mundell and the UK government can claim all they want that we should be less negative about a ‘no-deal’ Brexit but that will be of no comfort to workers in Scotland whose wages are expected to drop on average by around £2,000 in such a scenario. It will certainly be no comfort to the eighty thousand people projected to lose their jobs entirely, which is why David Mundell’s evasive answers were such a disappointment.
“If the Scottish Secretary had taken the energy he is putting into coming up with new names for this disastrous no-deal scenario and instead directed it towards conducting Scotland-specific impact assessment on Brexit, he would be far better serving the people he is supposed to represent around the cabinet table.
“The public in Scotland are not fools and no amount of rebranding ‘no deal’ to ‘minimalist deal’ will convince anyone that it will avoid the dire consequences for jobs and wages. The Scottish secretary wouldn’t answer if he’s afraid of a ‘no deal’ scenario, but if he’s not worried, he should be.”