14 June, 2017
Theresa May's Brexit plans should be dropped urgently, according to the Scottish government.
"The position taken by Brexit Minister Mike Russell today is unsustainable".
Mr Neil, who stepped down from government past year, said it was imperative for the First Minister to move the debate on from independence. The party has so far lost 20 seats, standing at a total of 35.
European Council President Donald Tusk has said that there is "no time to lose" to start the Brexit talks and finish process within the strict two-year timetable.
Perhaps the SNP's immediate priority ought to be to quietly use that leverage to secure constitutional concessions that Theresa May would never have dreamed of making if she had a majority.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said plans for a second independence referendum are now "dead", while Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the issue must now "disappear".
He added that "to some extent everything is off the table" until stability was restored within the UK Government and the Brexit question addressed. "People everywhere are crying out for stability".
Ms Sturgeon appealed for MPs of all parties to "join together to keep the United Kingdom and Scotland in the European single market".
Many Yes voters, albeit perhaps with greater reluctance than before, continued to back Labour in a doomed bid to keep the Tories out of office, as they had done as a matter of routine in other General Elections down the years. "But the forum to take this forward is through the Joint Ministerial Committee". "We have always said that we would work in alliance with others to promote progressive policies to build a fairer country", Sturgeon said.
"I want to ensure that we can look again at issues like Brexit which we know we are now going to have to get cross-party support for".
New Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West Christine Jardine told the Sunday Politics Scotland programme the election "sent a clear message" to the SNP that the proposed independence referendum should be dropped. Quite obviously, it was a thumping SNP victory, and the "triple lock" mandate for an independence referendum had been handsomely secured.
The future of Theresa May and a second Scottish independence referendum dominate the Scottish front pages, in the wake of the dramatic election result.
Speaking on the steps of Number 10 she insisted her government "can provide certainty for Brexit" and pledged to take Britain out of the EU.
In a general election full of unexpected twists, perhaps the biggest came north of the border where the Scottish National Party suffered heavy defeats ending their one-party hegemony.
