By Kirsty Blackman, SNP MP
Throughout the Brexit process Scotland has been completely ignored by Westminster – and our interests have been sidelined. We now face a right-wing, extreme Brexit Tory government that we didn't vote for, threatening to drag us out of the EU against our will on the hardest terms.
Boris Johnson's reckless plan to crash out of the EU "do or die, come what may" on October 31 would be devastating for Scotland. All the evidence shows it could push us into a deep recession, destroy 100,000 Scottish jobs, cost every person in the country £2,300 a year, and inflict lasting harm on our living standards, public services and the economy.
At the EU referendum, Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. For three years, the SNP has done everything we can to protect our EU membership and ensure that Scotland's voice is heard. We've sought compromise, and we've worked across the parties to build consensus but Boris Johnson has made it abundantly clear that he isn't remotely interested.
We have a Tory government that has been taken over wholesale by the Brexit extremists in the Vote Leave campaign. We have a Tory Prime Minister who doesn't tell the truth, doesn't respect democracy or the rule of law, doesn't want any compromise, and is ready to take us out of the EU with no deal – whatever the consequences for the people of Scotland.
This week the SNP led cross-party efforts to prevent an extreme Brexit – working successfully to build a majority and pass legislation to block a no-deal exit in the immediate term. Once we are confident that a no-deal Brexit is taken off the table, we will seek to force an early election so the people of Scotland can have their say.
That election is now a question of "when" not "if" – but Boris Johnson mustn't be allowed to dictate the timing as a means to avoid scrutiny and force through an extreme Brexit.
The SNP will always put Scotland’s interests first in all that we do – and it is in all our interests to prevent Johnson from defying the law to impose no-deal. So the SNP will act in the public interest and we will work to ensure an election takes place in the right way and at the right time.
When that election comes, and it soon will, the SNP will put Scotland's opposition to Brexit and our right to choose our own future as an independent nation at the heart of our campaign. It is now clearer than ever, that the people of Scotland deserve the choice of a better future than the one being imposed upon us by Westminster.
• Kirsty Blackman is SNP MP for Aberdeen North
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