THE Tories have finally admitted that their Brexit Withdrawal Bill is a power grab. A memo, obtained by the BBC, which was sent to Cabinet ministers, including Theresa May, claims “the Westminster power grab narrative deployed by the Scottish and Welsh Government ... has been difficult to counter”.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon jumped on the admission, tweeting: “The ‘claims’ have been difficult to counter because they are true!”

It came as UK ministers revealed they were preparing to push the bill through without reaching an agreement on amendments with Edinburgh and Cardiff.

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When Britain leaves the EU, there are 111 powers and responsibilities in devolved areas due to be repatriated.

The UK Government, in clause 11 of its withdrawal bill initially called for all those powers to go straight to Whitehall for ministers to decide what should be passed to the devolved administrations and what should be kept in national frameworks.

The clause was described by Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones as a “power grab”.

While agreements have been reached on around 86 powers, there is still no consensus on the remaining 25.

The UK Government believes these 25 should operate on a UK-wide basis, with the Scottish Government being consulted on changes. The Scottish Government, however, says it should be asked to agree to changes, rather than just being consulted.

There was no backing down when ministers from Scotland and Wales met with David Lidington, the Prime Minister’s de facto deputy, at a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee in London yesterday. The Minister for the Cabinet Office said that while Clause 11 will be amended, it won’t go as far as the devolved administrations want. Lidington, said it was a “significant proposal”. He added: “While I remain hopeful that a deal can still be done, we have a long-standing commitment to Parliament to bring forward an amendment and will now table it – as discussed with the devolved administrations.

“I strongly believe our proposal would respect and strengthen the devolution settlements across the UK and do so in a way that still allows the UK Government to protect the vitally important UK common market, providing much-needed certainty and no new barriers for families and businesses.

“The UK Government has a proven track record on devolution, our amendment is reasonable and we have moved a considerable way on it.”

Scottish Government Brexit Minister Mike Russell said the UK Government’s stance was “deeply disappointing”.

He said it was pressing ahead with a bill that, “even with its proposed amendment, would allow them to unilaterally take control of devolved powers without the agreement of the Scottish Parliament”.

Russell said: “Right now we’re being asked to sign away the Parliament’s powers with no idea of how UK-wide frameworks will work, how they will be governed and how we will go from the temporary restrictions the UK Government wants to agreeing longer term solutions. We can’t allow that to happen.”

Welsh minister Mark Drakeford said he hoped the amendment would be the basis for further talks rather than Whitehall’s “final word”.

Sturgeon, Jones and May are due to hold talks next week.