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Theresa May is too busy listening to “mad Brexiteers” instead of striking a deal in the UK’s best interests, Nicola Sturgeon claimed.

The First Minister heavily criticised senior Tories, including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg, after a meeting with the EU’s chief negotiator in Brussels yesterday.

Sturgeon is trying to put a case to the EU on keeping the single market and customs union, and hopes the UK Government will soften their approach.

She claimed the PM will come round to the position “sooner or later” because it’s the “only credible and sustainable” option.

After the meeting with Michel Barnier, Sturgeon said: “One of the problems for the UK Government now, in my view, is that they’re not really listening to anybody apart from the mad Brexiteers.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I’m talking about people like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Michael Gove.

“That’s the problem. Even though I don’t think these people speak for a majority in terms of support for a hard Brexit, they’re the ones being listened to.”

Staying in the customs union is in Scotland’s interests but also for the good of the whole of the UK, she said during an online interview yesterday.

(Image: REUTERS)

Sturgeon said progress has to be made next month or talks could falter and leave Britain crashing out without a deal.

She also claimed the case for Scottish independence remains strong, despite the problems caused by Brexit.

The SNP leader said staying in the customs union would be good for Scotland, including after independence, but warned Tories that rejecting it out of “spite” would damage the whole UK.

The meeting in Brussels came four days after publication of a refreshed blueprint for independence.

The Sustainable Growth Commission did not focus heavily on the EU but said Scotland should remain a member after leaving the UK.

Scottish Labour’s Brexit spokesman Neil Findlay said: “It is welcome that Nicola Sturgeon agrees with Jeremy Corbyn’s case for a customs union relationship between the EU and UK.

“But the complexities of withdrawing from a 40-year-old political union between the EU and UK surely expose the weakness of the case for ending Scotland’s 300-year relationship with the rest of the UK.”

Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “The SNP Government’s own figures prove that the UK single market – the very one the nationalists want to destroy – is four times more important than the EU.”