SCOTLAND’S most senior MEP has thrown his weight behind Nicola Sturgeon’s proposal to keep Scotland in the EU single market after brexit.

Labour's David Martin, who has been in the EU Parliament since 1984, said it should be “an objective of the UK Government” to maintain Scotland within the single market.

“This would be a reasonable compromise that would reflect where Scotland is politically, economically and as a society,” he and the SNP MEP Alyn Smith write jointly in the Herald.

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In December, the First Minister published a 62-page plan, Scotland’s Place in Europe, on how Scotland could stay in the EU single market, even if the rest of the UK quit it in 2019.

However the UK Government has so far shown little enthusiasm for making it part of Brexit talks with the other 27 EU nations.

In their article for the Herald’s agenda section, Mr Martin and Mr Smith said: “If the rest of the UK is to leave the Single Market, and we do not believe it should, then keeping Scotland (potentially alongside Northern Ireland and Gibraltar) within it should be an objective of the UK Government.

“This is a reasonable compromise that would reflect where Scotland is politically, economically and as a society."

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Both MEPs are members of Ms Sturgeon’s standing council of advisers on Europe, but did not author Scotland’s Place in Europe.

Last September, Mr Martin told Holyrood’s European Committees that a differentiated Brexit deal for Scotland would face considerable difficulties, including a hard border with England.

He said last night a bespoke Scottish deal remained difficult, and gave it a 10 to 20 per cent chance of being achieved, but said it was still worth pursuing.

He said: “It’s a long shot. But it’s such a desperate situation we have to try for it.

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“I know the SNP have their agenda, but I believe Scotland’s Place in Europe is an honest attempt to find a solution to a situation that was not created by the Scottish Government.”