REMAINING in the UK is costing Scotland its place in the European Union and in the European single market and customs union, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister made the point as she responded to Theresa May’s rejection of her call to renegotiate her deal to bring about a softer Brexit.

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Speaking in the Commons, a day after talks with Sturgeon, the Prime Minister turned down the possibility of changing course in such a direction.

May said: “The First Minister’s alternative is for the UK to stay in the single market and stay in the customs union and that is what we will not do.”

The First Minister took to Twitter to give her reaction, hitting out: “Taken out of the EU against our will, taken out of the single market and customs union against our economic interests ... that’s the cost to Scotland of not being independent.”

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Later, in a piece for the Guardian, she wrote: “From a Scottish perspective, one thing above all else is clear amid the Brexit chaos – that is, the cost to Scotland of not being independent.

“Independent Ireland has had nothing but support from its EU counterparts; Scotland has been treated with nothing but contempt by the UK Government.

“The Tory party, or at least those of them who even care, may not yet appreciate the long-term cost to the Union of such behaviour, but it will become apparent when the people of Scotland come to vote again on their future.”

Her intervention came after SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford appealed for the Prime Minister to listen to alternatives to her Brexit deal.

Sturgeon met opposition leaders to try and forge a softer Brexit option on Tuesday, before meeting May to urge her to change course.

Pressing May at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Blackford said: “The First Minister made it clear there are other alternatives to her Government’s Brexit plan. Was the Prime Minister listening?”

May said “of course” she had heard Sturgeon, but she would not be acting on her advice. Blackford said the situation was “exasperating” because the SNP’s alternative “at least has support in this place”.

He also referred to a UN report on poverty, highlighting how up to a quarter of people in the UK were living in poverty, and asked why May did not “recognise the scale of the challenge that Brexit is only going to make worse”.

He added: “For once start to listen – go back to Brussels, recognise we all have an interest in this. Let’s all work together to make sure we protect the interests of people in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.

“Let’s make sure we go back and negotiate, let’s keep us in the single market and customs union.”

May said it was the SNP that needed to listen to the people who had voted for Brexit and against independence.

She said: “He says let’s work together on this issue but the position he and his party have would frustrate the will of the British people in relation to leaving the EU. He talks about protecting jobs and that is exactly what the deal we’re proposing does.He talks also about listening – well perhaps the SNP should listen to the people of Scotland who gave a very clear view that Scotland should remain in its most important economic market, the internal market if the UK.”

May has stepped up her bid to persuade Tory backbenchers to support the draft withdrawal agreement when it is voted on in the Commons next month. She and Government ministers have warned Tory and Labour Eurosceptics the UK may not leave the EU if MPs vote down the deal.

The warnings came amid suggestions from Brussels a summit to sign off on the draft withdrawal agreement on Sunday could be called off unless progress is made on finalising a political declaration on future relations, with one senior official saying: “We’re not there yet.”

Reports suggested Germany’s ambassador to the EU had said the document must be finalised by today or Chancellor Angela Merkel would not attend.

Merkel has set her face against Tory backbench demands for Britain to have the unilateral power to tear up a proposed “backstop” arrangement for the Irish border.

She told the German Parliament: “We have placed value, and I think this is right, on the fact that Britain cannot decide unilaterally when it ends the state of the customs union, but that Britain must decide this together with the EU.”

Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said that for Sunday’s summit to go ahead, “we will need to have agreed beforehand the political declaration on the future relationship and we are not there yet”.

Since unveiling her draft agreement last week, the PM has repeatedly warned MPs failure to approve it would risk a no-deal Brexit, or no Brexit at all.

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, who took over from Esther McVey last week, said she expected MPs to back May’s plan after peering into the “abyss” and pulling back.

But she added: “If it doesn’t get through, anything could happen. The Brexiteers may lose their Brexit.”

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss told BBC Radio 5 Live: “If my colleagues in Parliament don’t vote for this then we’re in grave danger of not leaving at all.”