SNP's Blackford calls for General Election amid no-deal risk

Ian Blackford also backed moves to present the case for a People’s Vote, as well as consideration of the possibility of revoking Article 50 to halt Brexit.

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He said the default position on October 31 was for the UK to leave the EU with no deal, but added: “We have to find a way, one way or the other, to take control of the order paper as we managed to do over the last few months, because one of the things we do know is that Parliament has the option of revoking Article 50.

“I’m grateful for the Scottish politicians who went to the European Court of Justice and were able to get that determination.

“But the worrying thing is we can pass a motion, backbench motions, opposition days and so on … but we need to make sure we can give teeth to any proposition to revoke Article 50, and at the moment, it’s not clear that it’s going to be particularly easy to do that if the Government doesn’t bring forward legislation.

“What Theresa May was talking about was bringing forward a Bill that would become an Act of Parliament and of course that could be amended and then would give us the option to revoke Article 50, but we simply don’t know at this stage what a new prime minister will do.”

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Blackford said the Tories’ internal leadership troubles had left the country with a “zombie parliament” and that he would support a motion of no confidence in the Government.

“It’s not impossible that we could win a motion of no confidence. We must present the case of a People’s Vote and what we finally must do is look at the option of revoking Article 50.”

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“What we’re faced with as the clock is ticking down is an internal Tory leadership election and the rest of us are going to be on the outside of that. What we’ve had for the last while – and even more so for the next couple of months – is a zombie parliament, because the Prime Minister is not going to be bringing forward any legislation, so there is a question of what Parliament is going to be doing.

“It is a ridiculous situation and it just shows the chaos that Westminster is in.”

The SNP MP said it was “deeply unsatisfactory” that only the small number of Tory Party members would have a say in who the next prime minister would be, and warned: “What we’re seeing at the moment seems to be a lurch to the right from the Conservative Party.

“They all seem to be outdoing each other on the no-deal Brexit stakes and I think at the end of the day there’s a very real risk to the people of Scotland – not just the people of Scotland, but the people of the UK.

“I think there has to be a general election, but at the moment we’re out of the European Union at the end of October.

“If we’re going to have a Tory leadership election that may not come to a conclusion before the end of July, apparently we’re then going to be on recess, and we’ll come back in the autumn with very few weeks to resolve the situation.

“The threat of no deal, the threat to jobs and livelihoods, is very, very real, it’s increased as a consequence of what’s happened with the pending departure of Theresa May.”

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Blackford said he was not trying to downplay that we were facing “a very dangerous position” over Brexit, with all the Tory leadership candidates saying that they would try to negotiate a new deal.

“I cannot foresee any set of circumstances where the EU is going to open negotiations, they’ve made it quite clear they’re not going to do so,” he said.

“If we end up with a prime minister that is determined to take us out in a no-deal basis then we have to put that coalition in parliament together, and of course we would support a motion of no confidence. We want a General Election and we welcome that.

“Let’s be honest – a no-deal Brexit is going to do untold damage to the economy.

“We know from all the analysis we’ve seen that it could cost us up to 100,000 jobs in Scotland.

“This would crash the economy and I think any parliamentarian, particularly Conservative members, have got to look very carefully at their conscience and the responsibilities they have.”

Blackford agreed that any prime minister who was determined to take the UK out of the EU could do so by the default date by not doing much at all: “I’m afraid that is the case.

“I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous but that is the default position.

“That’s where we are from the legislation that is already in place, so we have to find a way to stop that.

“The best way of doing it, in many respects, is if the new prime minister does bring forward legislation, but on a no-deal basis that it’s possible they could avoid that.

“So we are in a very dangerous, very worrying situation in terms of our future as members of the European Union.”