To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the UK Government about improving relations with the European Union, including on rejoining the single market and customs union. (S6O-03720)

The Scottish Government’s long-standing position is that rejoining the single market and the customs union, at the earliest opportunity and as an independent country, represents the best future for Scotland.

Brexit has been and continues to be a disaster for Scotland. I have conveyed to the current UK Government that I welcome its intention to reset the relationship with the EU, and I have made it clear that we must do all that we can to reduce the harm of Brexit wherever possible. The Scottish Government will continue to advocate rejoining the European Union, given the huge benefits that that would bring, including access to the world’s largest single market and customs union—a customs union that is seven times larger than the United Kingdom.

A decade ago today, people went to the polls to vote in the independence referendum. They had been told that, to protect our membership of the European Union, they had to vote no. That was not the case, and we found that out to our cost not long after.

Is it not fair to say that, if the UK had not made the disastrous decision to leave the EU, at an estimated cost to the economy of £40 billion per annum, the proposed £22 billion of cuts from the Labour Government might have been avoided entirely?

Kevin Stewart makes very good points. It is a statement of fact that the Scottish electorate was mis-sold in 2014. It was told that it should vote no to protect Scotland’s place in the European Union. Since then, we have been taken out against the democratic will of the majority of people in this country.

Independent research organisations and the Office for Budget Responsibility have been tracking the economic impact of Brexit since the referendum in 2016, when Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. According to analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, the UK economy was 2.5 per cent smaller in 2023, and it expects that figure to rise to 5.7 per cent by 2035. That equates to around £69 billion in output and £28 billion in public revenues lost as a consequence of Brexit. That immense economic hole is a stark reminder of the price of Labour’s continued support for Brexit.