Nicola Sturgeon has come under fire for failing to sign the Scottish Fishermen’s Association pledge demanding that full control of UK waters is taken back from the EU.
The First Minister was attacked by the Tories as she traded blows with Jackson Carlaw over fishing at First Minister’s Questions.
Mr Carlaw, the Conservative interim leader, claimed that the SNP wanted to drag Scotland back into the Common Fisheries Policy because the party was against leaving the EU.
But Ms Sturgeon countered by claiming Mrs May’s Brexit deal had sold Scottish fishermen down the river.
Mr Carlaw said: “The reason Nicola Sturgeon won’t back the Scottish fishermen’s position is that she’s trapped by her own policy on Europe.
“The plain fact is that, for all their posturing and pompous outrage, the SNP’s policy is to rejoin the EU. Therefore, because there is no way round this, to rejoin the Common Fisheries Policy.
“Article 38.1 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union says that being a member of the European Union as she wishes an independent Scotland to be means you have to sign up to the Common Fisheries Policy.
“There are no reviews. There is no reform. It is not a question of liking it, it is a question of lumping it. Isn’t it simply deceiving people, First Minister, to pretend this is anything other than a fact?”
Mr Carlaw added that the only reason the SNP wanted to vote down Mrs May’s Brexit deal was to further the Scottish independence cause.
But Ms Sturgeon replied, saying: “He talks about the SNP using Brexit to advance the case for independence – let me say to him Brexit does that all by itself, it doesn’t need any help from the SNP”.
She accused the Tories of “exploiting independence” to avoid hard questions on Brexit.
The SNP leader said the proposed Brexit deal “will take Scotland out of the European Union against our will, it will take us out of the Single Market against our economic interest, it will put us at a potential competitive disadvantage with Northern Ireland, and into the bargain it will sell out Scottish fishermen”.