Tomorrow, residents of Scotland will go to vote on the country's future.

image expired

In a final address before the independence referendum, Rural Affairs Secretary said that independence would work in favour of Scotland's farmers, turning their ministers and representatives from "lobbyists into negotiators."

Speaking at a public meeting in Forres, Moray on Monday, Lochhead countered claims that Scotland's negotiating position in Europe would be better as part of a larger union, with more voting power. He said this would be the case if negotiations by UK ministers had taken into account the needs of Scotland's people, but that historically this has not happened.

Lochhead said, "I have attended scores of EU meetings and negotiations over the years and watching how other countries similar in size to Scotland operate [it] is certainly not my view" that smaller countries are disadvantaged. 

He continued, "The UK's 29 votes would only be useful to Scotland if they were ever actually used in Scotland's interests. I cannot recall one occasion in my seven years where the UK has used its votes for Scotland." 

The Rural Affairs secretary said that, since devolution in 1999, an anomalous state of affairs has arisen wherein Scotland has responsibility for legislation in certain key areas, but Westminster representatives still have control of these policy areas in Europe.

He said, "No UK Government has even bothered to properly take into account devolution. Other counties do things differently.

"Take what happens at the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers. I'm told that there is not enough space for me to sit alongside the UK Minister and that having more than one Minister from the same country at the top table would send out confusing messages. Yet the Belgium delegation all sit at the top table together.  The federal minister often leads but the Flemish and Walloon Ministers sit alongside them." 

Lochhead claimed that, during a meeting on Common Agricultural Policy reform in Brussels, the UK Minister attending the Agriculture Council had described Scotland's key priorities as "itty bitty technical issues" that could be negotiated in the margins. The MSP for Moray claimed that the minister in question had "raised the concerns of a sugar factory in London more than Scotland's beef and sheep sectors or other Scottish priorities."

However, the Rural Affairs Secretary added that "At [another] recent Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels, several EU Ministers approached me and whispered in my ear that they wished the Yes campaign the best of luck. So my experience tells me that Scotland will be warmly welcomed to Europe's top table."