04:04

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has today written to the leaders of the UK’s opposition parties asking them to join her in pressing for an extension to next March’s deadline for leaving the EU to avoid “an economic cliff edge”.

Nearly two years since Sturgeon herself set out the Scottish government’s paper proposing options for remaining within the single market and customs union, the SNP leader said:

It’s time for everyone in the UK political establishment to wake up to the reality of what now faces us. If the choice we face is between no deal and no detail, then an extension to the article 50 negotiation period must be on the table as the only way to avoid an economic cliff edge and allow all alternative options to be considered.

She said that the Westminster government had deliberately created a false dichotomy between a no-deal and the “inadequate” Chequers proposal, but that in reality “it seems increasingly likely that the choice will be between a no deal Brexit and a blind Brexit.” She went on:

Both options are unpalatable and completely unacceptable. A no deal Brexit will – by the UK government’s own admission – lead to dire economic consequences and a shortage of medicines and foodstuffs. Meanwhile, a ‘blind’ Brexit will simply kick all of the difficult decisions into the long grass – but with the UK already out of the EU. Not only would that continue the uncertainty, it would be tantamount to stepping off a cliff edge blindfolded, with no idea of what the landing place will be.