Sturgeon lays out Scotland plan to stay in single market after Brexit

Charles Grant, a member of the Scottish government’s advisory Standing Council on Europe, said a special deal would be “extremely difficult” given the legal complexity and lack of support from the UK government. “It would be legally possible for Scotland to have control over immigration that would allow freedom of movement, but politically Mrs May would be highly unlikely to go for it,” said Mr Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform.

...Even if Scotland was allowed complete autonomy on all business regulation and committed to maintaining EU regulation, as Norway and Iceland do, other EU members would be concerned about the possibility of it becoming a “back door” route for goods from the rest of the UK into the EU, he said. “There would be tremendous legal difficulties — and it’s anyway hypothetical because Britain is not going to devolve complete control of business regulation,” he said.