ARGYLL and Bute MP Brendan O'Hara tells the Advertiser why he will be voting against the "bad deal" Brexit agreement.

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FOR the past two years, the Prime Minister has told us repeatedly that a “no deal is better than a bad deal” and under no circumstance would she ever agree to a “bad deal”.

Yet what she’ll bring to parliament shortly is exactly that, a bad deal. A very bad deal.

Because any deal that puts Scotland at a competitive disadvantage when compared to Northern Ireland is a “bad deal”. Any deal that doesn’t fundamentally reform but simply rebrand the Common Fisheries Policy, is a “bad deal”. And even I, as a committed Remainer and supporter of a People’s Vote, can see that any deal which leaves the UK in but not in the EU, and out but not out of the EU, is a “bad deal”.

And when the best the architect and greatest proponent of the deal can muster is “this is all there is, take it or leave it”, you know she too knows this is a “bad deal”.

But she’s also wrong, because this isn’t just a “take it or leave it” situation. There is time to secure a far better deal, one that keeps us in the Single Market and the Customs Union at least, and which does not leave Scotland at a competitive disadvantage. That’s why I will definitely vote against this deal when it comes before Westminster early in December.

Back in 2014 we were told that only by voting No in the independence referendum would we be able to retain our EU citizenship.

No one thought when they voted No back in 2014 that they would be giving a green light to Scotland being put at a competitive disadvantage, compared to other parts of the UK.

And I don’t think anyone who voted No agreed to Scotland being dragged out of the EU against our will by a government and a Prime Minister we didn’t vote for.

This is why Scotland’s Parliament needs the full powers that every other normal, independent parliament has; not just so we can stop and reverse this Brexit chaos but to ensure that never again, will Scotland be reduced to being a passive bystander while things are done to it, and for it, by governments we have rejected.