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Boris Johnson’s negotiating position with Europe has been slammed as “really dangerous”.

Scotland’s Brexit secretary Michael Russell hit out as the UK Government enters the first round of crunch talks with EU counterparts.

He said: “There's a difference between talking tough and talking in a ludicrous fashion.

"What we've had from the negotiating mandate is something so far away from what people thought Brexit would be to be really dangerous.”

Russell claimed the UK Government’s hope for deal similar to one between Canada and the EU will cost everyone in Britain money.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier wants the UK to sign up to more equal rules set in Brussels, along with changes to fishing quotas and access to waters for European vessels.

Russell, in a BBC Radio Scotland interview, said: “I'll be making a statement in Parliament about this this week, but in reality the type of Brexit that the UK is now talking about - which it wants, this is not talking tough, it says it wants a Canada-style trade deal - is very, very bad indeed, very disruptive.

"We know, we actually know, it's not a guess what damage that will do to the economy and to Scotland and it will cost every single one of us money from now on."

The UK technically left the EU in January but talks on what the split will actually look like are only now starting.

Johnson has also promised to “drive a hard bargain” with the US in parallel talks

He claimed this will involve “trading Scottish smoked salmon for Stetson hats”.

The UK Government has repeatedly faced demands to rule out allowing imports of chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef from the States.