Humza Yousaf told rejoining EU will make Scotland ‘a basket case’

Humza Yousaf’s SNP risks turning Scotland into an “utter basket case of a failed state” with his party’s plan to take an independent Scotland back into the European Union, Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib has warned.

Mr Habib was commenting after the publication of the SNP’s seventh paper on independence, entitled: “An independent Scotland in the EU.”

The 78-page document says the process of re-joining the bloc would be “closely aligned” with the process of establishing a Scottish pound, something discussed in a previous paper.

The document also described plans for checks on goods which are traded across the border between an independent Scotland and England, envisaging what it calls a “single trade window” online.

However, former Brexit Party MEP Mr Habib was far from convinced.

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He told Express.co.uk: “The fact is, Scotland would not be independent if it joins the EU.

“It would have given up its ancient successful union with the rest of Great Britain to join a failing one with the EU.”

It was obvious that there could be no route for Scotland rejoining without “standing on its own two legs” for at a number of years, Mr Habib pointed out.

He explained: “The EU will insist on being able to assess Scotland as a genuinely independent country, test its economic capability and indeed its general ability to govern itself.

Humza Yousaf says independent Scotland will rejoin the EU

“The notion that it could hop and skip its way into the EU is absurd.”

It was this intermediate period of genuine independence which exposed Mr Humza’s ambitions as unworkable, Mr Habib said.

He continued: “Right now, it is English generosity that props up Scotland.

“What will he do when that ends? Launch a new currency? Print his own monopoly money with no meaningful economy to back it up?

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“All the complaints made by him about the post-Brexit British economy will pale by comparison to the utter basket case of a failed state he would create.

“The new Scottish currency would tank; Scotland would be bust before you could say Robert is your father’s brother.”

Referencing Hilaire Belloc’s 1907 poem Jim, in which the title character is famously eaten by a lion during a trip to the zoo, Mr Habib added: “No Mr Humza, you will not be able to deliver. My advice to you is:

“…Always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse!”

Unveiling the paper last week, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson said: “A Yes vote in a referendum on that question in Scotland would begin the process of our negotiations with the UK and then, in time, with the EU.

“And, we would imagine that, that would take in the same sort of order as other countries that have joined, that’s anything between two years and five years.

“But we would be starting from a very different position.

“We’re literally the only part of the European Union that’s been taken out against our will and we’re the only part of the formerly part of the European Union that is seeking to rejoin.”

Mr Robertson subsequently told Express.co.uk:

External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson said: “Independence would give Scotland direct representation in European decision-making for the very first time, providing opportunities for our economy to grow inside a market which is seven times the size of the UK and escape the damage of the UK’s hard Brexit, which is hitting Scotland’s economy and communities hard.”

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