PMQs: SNP demands 'special' Brexit status for Scotland

Rishi Sunak has rejected calls from the SNP to give Scotland the same "special status" he is proposing for Northern Ireland over post-Brexit trade.

Northern Irish firms will continue to be part of the EU single market for goods under the PM's deal with the EU.

Mr Sunak has said it will create "the world's most exciting economic zone".

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accused him at Prime Minister's Questions of "denying" the benefits of the single market "to the rest of us".

SNP MP Joanna Cherry joined in with the attack, saying: "The prime minister has boasted that his new Brexit deal puts Northern Ireland in an unbelievably special position because it will have access to both the UK and the EU markets, and he said this makes it the world's most exciting economic zone.

"So my question for the prime minister is this: If there can be a very, very special status for the province of Northern Ireland, why can't there be a very, very special status for the nation of Scotland?"

Mr Sunak replied: "There is a very special status for the nation of Scotland and that's inside our United Kingdom."

Mr Flynn said the PM's claim that EU single market access would be "good for business" was in contrast to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's claim in December that re-joining the single market would not boost economic growth.

"Does it hurt the prime minister to know that the Labour Party believe in Brexit more than he does?" the SNP leader asked.

Mr Sunak accused Mr Flynn of "seeking to play politics with the situation in Northern Ireland".

His said his Windsor framework, setting out new rules for Northern Irish trade, was "not about the macro issue of membership of the European Union" but about avoiding a land border "on the island of Ireland".

"It's about getting the right mechanisms in place to support businesses and communities in Northern Ireland," he added.

Under the terms of the deal, goods from Britain destined for Northern Ireland will travel through a new "green lane", with a separate "red lane" for goods at risk of moving on to the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.

Mr Sunak, who was an early supporter of the campaign to leave the EU, has spent the past 48 hours promoting his new deal.

On a visit to a Coca-Cola factory in County Antrim on Tuesday, he said: "Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position - unique position in the entire world, European continent - in having privileged access, not just to the UK home market, which is enormous, but also the European Union single market.

"Nobody else has that. No-one. Only you guys: only here, and that is the prize."

The PM appears to have convinced the majority of Conservative MPs to back his deal. Labour has also said it will vote for the deal, guaranteeing it will become law.

But the Democratic Unionist Party, whose support is vital to restore power-sharing government to Northern Ireland, have yet to give their backing.

While the DUP is the largest unionist party at Stormont, nationalist Sinn Féin became Stormont's biggest party overall in last May's assembly election - which allows it to nominate a power-sharing government's first minister.

The party welcomed Mr Sunak's deal and on Wednesday the party's vice-president Michelle O'Neill said: "I rarely find myself agreeing with a British prime minister but access to both markets has to be grabbed with both hands."

The European Research Group of Brexiteer Tory MPs says it will give its verdict in two weeks' time, once its lawyers have examined the text in detail.