ON a day when Prime Minister Theresa May found out that EU leaders are quite happy to work without her, Vote Leave leader Michael Gove was forced to admit in Edinburgh that he had no chance of keeping one of his campaign’s promises to Scotland.
Speaking in a debate in the capital, Mike Russell, Scotland’s Brexit minister, said that Leave campaigners had promised that Scotland would get major new powers after leaving the EU – he brandished the leaflet which showed the promise.
It stated: “Scotland will regain control over fishing, agriculture and important social and environmental areas – giving Holyrood even more power to deliver for the Scottish people.”
Gove duly confessed that as he is no longer a UK cabinet minister, he cannot fulfil that promise.
He said: “There are a number of things if I were a minister I would love to be able to do. What I cannot do is guarantee the transfer of these powers. I have to respect the fact that the UK Government is taking a different approach.”
Russell was forthright: “It appears this promise is not being honoured. I can tell you there is a very difficult discussion taking place, making little progress, about this question of automatic transfer of powers and frameworks.
“So the campaign appears to me to have been perhaps not as straightforward and as honest as it might have been, because that is the position the UK Government is taking.”
He added that the UK Government was ignoring the Scottish Government’s EU policy paper which set out all the powers that could come back from Brussels to Holyrood.
Over in Malta, Prime Minister May had a truncated day during which she was trumpeting, if you’ll pardon the word, her belief that she could act as a bridge between Europe and Donald Trump.
After she said that other EU leaders should work “patiently and constructively” with the US, they said what they thought of ‘bridging’ in no uncertain terms.
Lithuanian President, Dalia Grybauskait, said: “I don’t think there is a necessity for a bridge. We communicate with the Americans on Twitter.”
France’s President Hollande said: “It is not about asking one particular country, be it the UK or any other, to represent Europe in its relationship with the United States.”
He added: “What is at stake is the very destiny of the European Union.
“It is unacceptable that there be, through a certain number of statements by the President of the United States, a pressure on what Europe must be or what it must not be, because that is what he seeks.
“There is also the need to ensure our own defence within the framework of the Atlantic Alliance. We must protect our commercial interests when they are threatened.”
Later, in a slip of the tongue, when asked about the EU’s response to climate change, Hollande said: “Europe is not just 27 countries individually.”
It will be 28 until Brexit actually happens, but clearly the French President has already accepted it’s a foregone conclusion as was demonstrated by the fact that May left after lunch and the other leaders then discussed the forthcoming Rome summit that marks 60 years of the Treaty signed there which established the Common Market.
Meanwhile, the first of three fresh legal challenges over Brexit has been blocked by the High Court on the grounds that it is “premature”.
A group of campaigners against a hard Brexit wanted a new court ruling that Parliament must separately give permission before the Government can pull out of the European Economic Area (EEA).
The judge said: “There is no final decision by the Government as to the mechanism by which the EEA Agreement would cease to apply within the UK.”
The High Court decision was welcomed by a Government spokeswoman, who said: “As the Prime Minister has said, we will not be a member of the single market and we will be seeking a broad new partnership with the EU, including a bold and ambitious free trade agreement.”
Peter Wilding, chairman of the pro-Europe pressure group British Influence who brought the case to court, said: “Legal certainty is a basic fundamental tenet of our legal system – and we still lack that certainty over whether our EEA rights and freedoms will remain, be taken away by the stroke of a minister’s pen, or after Parliamentary consideration.
“The Government must stop playing poker with our rights and stop taking liberties with our freedoms.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel