SNP MP slapped down by Tory minister over Brexit swipe in Question Time clash

Question Time: SNP MP clashes with Tory minister over Brexit

An SNP MP was slapped down by a Tory minister after taking a swipe at Brexit during tonight’s BBC Question Time.

Alyn Smith, the nationalist party’s Europe spokesman, hit out at the “mess” of Brexit as the programme discussed whether there should be a general election now.

But local government minister Lee Rowley pointed out that the British people voted to leave the EU.

Mr Smith said: “Lee talks about the Windsor Framework and the trade deals that have been done, all of that was trying to fix the mess that Brexit created, which his party did and the Labour Party was posted missing upon.”

But Mr Rowley replied: “Which the British people made a choice on.”

The SNP MP began to point out that there was not a majority of votes for Brexit in Scotland in the 2016 referendum, saying: “Well the people of Scotland…”

But the Conservative MP argued that as a whole the UK voted to leave the Brussels bloc.

Mr Rowley said: “The British people did and until it changes we are in a union of the United Kingdom.

“And the union of the UK made that decision and it was absolutely incumbent on the Government of the day to make sure that decision was implemented otherwise we would have had a whole heap of additional problems right now with people being even more cynical.”

Mr Smith then referred to an earlier discussion during the show on the cap of bankers’ bonuses being removed as part of a post-Brexit shake-up of UK financial rules.

He said: “We’ve already talked about one of the biggest benefits of Brexit which is for bankers’ bonuses to go through the roof.”

But Mr Rowley replied: “That’s not serious Alyn, that’s not serious.”