Scotland-England Border Controls Would Be Disastrous for Business - MEP

The impact of border controls between Scotland and England would be "absolutely disastrous" for Scottish businesses, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Member of European Parliament for Scotland, David Coburn, told Sputnik Monday.

EDINBURGH (Sputnik) — On June 23, the referendum was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country withdrawing from the European Union. The Scottish National Party (SNP) started pressing for a deal that would see Scotland remain part of the EU after 62 percent of Scottish voters backed remaining in the bloc in the Brexit referendum.

"If England leaves the EU and Scotland does not there would have to be border controls between Scotland and England… The costs of creating such a border would be horrendous and the impact on business in Scotland would be absolutely disastrous. The SNP [Scottish National Party] say they are progressive but there is nothing progressive about going back 400 years and reinstating the border between Scotland and England," Coburn said.

The options under consideration by Scottish Ministers include backing a second Scottish independence referendum and separately seeking to negotiate a deal that would maintain Scotland’s membership of the UK and the EU, the so-called "reverse Greenland" option.

Yet, according to Coburn, who said he had a meeting with European Parliament President Martin Schulz last week, a deal that maintained Scotland’s EU membership would face a multitude of challenges.

"As far as he [Schulz] is concerned, the Scottish nationalists are wasting their time because there would be tremendous problems with Spain, with the Baltic countries et cetera about this and they would veto any Scottish entry. As far as Schulz is concerned Scotland would have to leave the European Union and have to reapply again and in doing that it would have to have the Euro," Coburn explained.

He added that such a move would mean that Scotland would lose the British rebate and that its contributions to the European Union would rise tremendously. "In addition we would have to accept open door migration which the Scots have plainly rejected many times," Coburn noted.

He also criticized the SNP’s refusal to accept June’s UK-wide EU referendum result which the Scottish party had fully participated and campaigned in.

"The SNP are always appalling losers. They lost the Scottish independence referendum, they’ve never accepted that result and I do not believe the SNP are a democratic party. I think they are an authoritarian party," Coburn said.

Scottish voters took part in an independence referendum in September 2014 that saw 55 percent of voters backing Scotland’s continued membership of the United Kingdom which was established in 1707.