SNP MP calls for Brexit extension until end of 2020 to allow for a second referendum

SNP MP Joanna Cherry outside the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

An SNP MP has called for a delay to Brexit until the end of next year if needed to allow for a second referendum.

Joanna Cherry QC said she would back a lengthy delay in order to stop the damage posed by the current Brexit deal.

Appearing on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, she was asked if she would back an extension until the end of next year to allow time for a second referendum if approved by parliament.

“Yes, I would,” she replied. “Because the current deal that’s been negotiated by Boris Johnson is immensely damaging to the British economy and particularly for Scotland.”

She pointed out that her party backed a second Brexit referendum at its autumn conference last year.

Cherry added: “We need to get a government in place to deliver the referendum and I don’t see Boris Johnson’s Government doing that.

“The SNP has been very clear that Boris Johnson should be removed from office once an extension is obtained.”