Support for Brexit has collapsed to record lows and the message from across Europe is clear.
Scotland would be welcomed back into the EU as an independent nation.
Recent polling shows fewer than 30 per cent of people across the UK still support Brexit, with half now wanting the chance to vote again on EU membership.
Yet with Labour now firmly committed to Brexit and rejecting any closer alignment with the EU, the SNP says there is only one realistic route for Scotland to rejoin, independence.
A new survey conducted in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Denmark found overwhelming backing for Scotland’s return, with between 63 and 75 per cent of people in those countries saying they would support an independent Scotland becoming a member of the European Union.
SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said the polling confirmed what the party had long argued.
“We were promised back in 2014 that the only way to remain in the EU was by rejecting independence,” he said.
“Less than two years later that promise lay in tatters as we were dragged out of the EU against our will.
“The message from Europe is crystal clear, an independent Scotland would be welcome back in the EU.
“Scotland never voted for Brexit, nor did the people of Europe want us to leave.”
He said Brexit had been “an unmitigated disaster” for Scotland and the wider continent.
“It has made us all poorer, driven up food prices, damaged our NHS and our arts and culture sector, and taken away opportunities from our young people,” he said.
Mr McMillan argued that both Westminster parties had now abandoned any ambition to reverse the harm caused by Brexit.
“Labour’s Brexit Britain is broken, and Westminster can’t fix it,” he said.
“It is only with independence that Scotland can build a better future, back where we belong at the heart of Europe.”
