Extract from Scottish Parliament statement on Brexit - Feb 3

Tom Arthur (Renfrewshire South) (SNP): I remind the chamber that I am a member of the Musicians Union.

Scotland’s music sector has been severely impacted by the pandemic and is facing future barriers to recovery in the form of the UK Government’s hard, isolationist Brexit deal. Will the cabinet secretary commit to continuing to apply pressure on the UK Government to get back round the negotiating table and strike a deal that restores musicians’ right to work unhindered across these islands and the European Union?

The Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs (Michael Russell): One of the saddest aspects of the issue that Mr Arthur raises is that it is now clear that if the UK Government had asked for an exemption for performing artists, it would have received such an exemption. Why David Frost—who, fortunately, is not to be the national security adviser, which allows all of us to sleep easier in our beds at night—did not ask for that, I do not know. The circumstance is that that industry, which had already been hit extraordinarily hard by the Covid pandemic, has now been put in an impossibly difficult position. I hope that the UK Government is considering that, and that it might—with a degree of humility—go back to the EU and say, “We got that wrong. Is there something we can do?”

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