STEPHEN Flynn has urged Keir Starmer to drop his opposition to re-joining the EU amid the threat of US tariffs after Donald Trump’s election victory.
The SNP Westminster leader said the Prime Minister’s red lines on the economic block were always “ridiculous”.
But he said the economic threat posed by the Trump administration in America now made them “redundant”.
The President-elect – who decisively won the US election earlier this week – pledged during his campaign to bring in tariffs on exports entering the US.
Experts have warned the policy could result in a £20 billion hit to the UK’s economy.
The Scottish Whisky Association said that the 18 months of tariffs placed on the drink by Trump during his last term in office resulted in a £600 million dip in exports for the industry.
First Minister John Swinney (below) said he was concerned about the impact future tariffs may have on Scotch, the vast majority of which is exported.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned during Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget that “weak growth in imports and exports over the medium term partly reflects the continuing impact of Brexit, which we expect to reduce the overall trade intensity of the UK economy by 15% in the long term”.
Flynn, who has repeatedly called for the UK to re-join the EU, accused Starmer of inflicting “economic self-harm” on Scotland and the rest of the UK.
He said: “It is basic common sense that if Trump tariffs become a reality, the only economic security and protection the UK can possibly seek is through re-joining the EU single market and customs union – the largest in the world.
“That is now the only path to protect our businesses and consumers in the face of deep economic uncertainty and the damage of global protectionism.
“If the Labour party is stubbornly saying it won’t now drop its self-imposed red lines, then it is deliberately choosing to inflict economic self-harm on Scotland and the rest of the UK.
“Labour will be every bit as responsible for broken, Brexit Britain as the Tories who imposed it in the first place.”
The SNP MP said Labour should be “honest enough to admit that Brexit broke it”.
He added: “Scotland has now suffered far too long with the insult and the injury of Brexit.
“If the Westminster parties can’t recognise the damage it is doing, people will naturally and quickly realise that independence offers the only way back to the protection and prosperity of the European Union.”
The UK Government has been approached for comment.
