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Scotland would get the Gibraltar treatment from Spain if it votes for independence , Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has insisted.

The European Union has given Spain the right to veto a post-Brexit deal with the UK that would affect Gibraltar.

Rennie said SNP ministers were “delusional” if they believed that an independent Scotland would automatically be granted EU membership.

(Image: Unknown)

Every EU country has to approve new members and Spain oppose breakaway states in Europe in the face

of a powerful separatist movement in Catalonia.

Rennie said: “The response from the European Union has shown the influence Spain is going to have in negotiations.

“The situation with Gibraltar is a taste of how an independent Scotland would be treated in any negotiations.

“For the SNP to believe Spain will bend over backwards and just wave Scotland into full EU or EFTA membership is delusional.

“The Gibraltar situation should be a hard lesson for the SNP that Spain will look after their own interest.

“That means making sure nothing aids Catalonia’s bid for independence.”

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But a spokesman for Scotland’s Brexit Minister Mike Russell said: “Leading Spanish politicians have been clear they will not oppose an independent Scotland’s place in Europe.

“It is deeply revealing that, when the issue is about the problems already facing the UK in getting any kind of Brexit deal, Willie Rennie’s first instinct is to use it to attack the case for Scotland having an alternative to the Tories’ hard Brexit.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour and the Tories urged Nicola Sturgeon to focus on issues like education instead of a second independence referendum.

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Scottish Labour said there had been a nine per cent drop in childcare graduates in 2016, putting in doubt the SNP’s pledge to double the number of free early years education, which would require 20,000 more qualified staff by 2020.

Labour education spokesman Daniel Johnson said: “The SNP should stop focusing on a divisive second independence referendum and get back to governing.”

Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: “Nicola Sturgeon promised to prioritise our children’s education. Instead, she’s dumped that pledge to focus on the SNP’s only priority – splitting our country in two.

“She has become a part-time First Minister and full-time nationalist activist.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “SVQs are one route to a career in early learning and childcare, and the number of students obtaining HNC qualifications and completing modern apprenticeships in the sector increased over the same period.

“We’re also investing £1.5million to increase the number of university places available to support implementation of our commitment that, by 2018, nurseries in Scotland’s most deprived areas will benefit from an additional teacher or graduate.”