We are only a few weeks into 2019 and already the Brexit crisis has deepened.

For two and a half years the Tory UK government has bulldozed its way through Brexit, refusing to listen to or engage meaningfully with anyone other than its own backbenchers, as it desperately attempts to resolve a long-standing Europe-sized rift in its ranks.

For the Tories, the interests of Scotland, and indeed the economic interests of the whole of the UK, have barely even been an afterthought. Jobs, businesses, public services, living standards, the prospects of future generations and our reputation in the world are all now at huge risk because Theresa May and her government have been driven by party factions instead of acting in the national interest.

It has been crystal clear for months, to anyone who cared to look, that Theresa May’s Brexit deal had no chance of getting through parliament. But instead of facing up to that reality, she chose to carry on regardless, refusing to discuss compromise or alternative views along the way. Adding insult to injury the government took the decision to delay the original vote scheduled for December, which just succeeded in wasting more precious time, only to have it voted down last week, in what was for Theresa May and her government the biggest parliamentary defeat of all times - securing them a place in the history books that I am sure they would rather have avoided.

And yet, incredibly, it seems that this overwhelming defeat has had little or no effect on the Prime Minister’s approach. As Theresa May holds meetings with opposition parties supposedly to find a way through this mess of her own making, her ministers, including Scotland’s very own Secretary of State David Mundell, are on television taking almost all possible options for compromise off the table.

Even in my call with the Prime Minister last week she failed to give any indication that she is prepared to drop or even compromise on her ‘red lines’ to create room for negotiation and ultimately, a way forward. It would appear, yet again, that the Prime Minister is prioritising rhetoric over realism.

In all of this, we should always remember that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU – 62% to be precise. Two of the UK’s four nations voted to remain and yet at no point in the past two and a half years has that been recognised or respected by Theresa May and her government.

Instead, the Tories would prefer to drag Scotland out of the EU against our will. Their plan, in taking us out of a market eight times bigger than the UK, would make us poorer, hit jobs and affect the living standards of people across Scotland – the cost has been estimated to be around £1,600 per person.

Not only would we be economically worse off, we’d be culturally poorer too. Right now we have the ability to live, work, study and travel across 27 other countries. By ending freedom of movement we’ll no longer have this right. Thanks to the Prime Minister’s obsession with cutting immigration - which will harm Scotland, given our demographic need to attract more people to come here - people in the UK will actually have our own rights removed.

Further, the millions of people from other EU member states living in our communities, people who have built lives here, and who contribute to our economy and society, are now being forced to apply for the right to continue living here. It is unconscionable for the Tories to happily plough ahead knowing millions of people’s futures are under threat.

The Tories must be prevented from driving the country off a Brexit cliff-edge.

That is why, instead of disgracefully using the prospect of No Deal as a threat to get MPs to support her deal, Theresa May must rule it out unequivocally. She must take the steps necessary to extend Article 50, as the only way to stop the clock on Brexit and prevent the UK from crashing out of the EU without a deal.

Additionally, given the failure of the UK government to come up with a workable Brexit plan, preparations for a second referendum on EU membership should be made, with the option of remaining in the EU on the ballot paper.

Since the EU referendum we have seen in practice the many ways in which Scotland’s national interests are ignored by Westminster. The vote of the Scottish people has been ignored, the powers of the Scottish Parliament have been eroded, and the Scottish government has been sidelined. Long gone is the UK ‘partnership of equals’ that Theresa May was at pains to promise when she became Prime Minister.

In my view, it has never been clearer that the only way to truly ensure Scotland’s democratic interests are protected is with independence. But regardless of our constitutional future, it is in the interests of the whole of the UK for our close relationship with Europe to continue. If Westminster can have another vote on that future relationship then so too must the people.