Brexit is 'biggest unconcluded disaster of modern times', MP claims

Watch: SNP MP claims Brexit is 'biggest unconcluded disaster of modern times'

An SNP MP has claimed Brexit is “the biggest unconcluded disaster of modern times”.

Pete Wishart, known for his animated anti-Brexit outbursts in the House of Commons, compared the deal agreed by Boris Johnson last year to a “barely defrosted turkey”.

It comes amid the deadlock in “future relationship” talks between the UK and EU, with time running out to strike a post-Brexit trade deal.

The UK left the EU on 31 January, but has since been in a “transition period” in which it has effectively remained members.

Negotiating teams from both sides have failed to agree a deal – with the transition period ending in just 24 days.

Speaking in a Brexit debate in the Commons on Monday, Wishart said: “Here we are at the 59th minute of the 11th hour. What was always going to be the easiest deal in history has become the biggest unconcluded disaster of modern times.”

Referring to Johnson’s 2019 general election promises of an “oven-ready deal”, Wishart went on: “The oven-ready deal was in fact a barely defrosted turkey.

“We still don't know if it's to be a low deal or a no deal. We still don't know the scale of the carnage that each sector will have to endure.”

After inviting minister Penny Mordaunt to concede the negotiations have been a “shambles”, she told him: “He has surpassed himself today.”

She also claimed the government’s negotiators have “taken on board” concerns raised by his SNP colleagues.

The government said on Monday that it is prepared to continue the negotiations for “as long as we have time available”.

Johnson’s official spokesman said that although time was in “very short supply”, Britain would stick at the discussions if an agreement was still possible.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, reportedly told MEPs the deadline for talks succeeding is Wednesday. Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost are currently negotiating in Brussels.

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