AN SNP minister has likened Brexit to the Highland Clearances.
Christina McKelvie, minister for older people and equalities, said both involved wealthy elites telling people what to do.
She told a fringe meeting at the SNP's conference in Glasgow: "Rich, privileged, entitled people, shifting people to the cliff edge 300 years ago, 200 years ago, now. Still doing the same thing."
Scottish Tory MSP Donald Cameron labelled the "inflammatory comments" an "utter disgrace".
He said: "This kind of extreme, prejudiced and ill-informed rhetoric is also incredibly insulting to those who voted for Brexit, and shows a wilful misunderstanding of the reasons they voted as they did.
“People want politicians to get on with delivering a good Brexit deal which works for Scotland and many will be aghast at such an appalling outburst from a government minister, as yet again the SNP attempt to stoke the fires of grievance.”
Hundreds of thousands of people left the Highlands during the Clearances, which lasted between roughly 1760 and 1850.
The period has become synonymous with tales of cruelty at the hands of landlords seeking to cash in on sheep farming.
Ms McKelvie was addressing an SNP conference meeting marking six months to go before the UK is due to leave the European Union.
She said: "A few weeks ago I had the real privilege to be up at Helmsdale at the Helmsdale Games, and on my adventures up there I passed a place called Badbea and I stopped and I thought, 'I've heard of this place.'
"So I went in and it was a clearance village. And I thought it was a village where people were cleared from – it turned out it was a village where people were cleared to.
"It's on the cliff edge, and the wee legend said, 'On the cliff edge, on the edge of Europe'. And it made me think about where we are now on that cliff edge.
"Rich, privileged, entitled people, shifting people to the cliff edge 300 years ago, 200 years ago, now. Still doing the same thing.
"Rich, privileged, Rees-Moggs telling us what we can and can't do and pushing us to the cliff edge, to the edge. And that analogy was very, very powerful."
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