IAN Blackford will today use a House of Commons debate to make the case for emergency legislation to prevent the “power grab” on Scottish devolution.
He is due to use a debate in the Commons to reiterate calls for the Prime Minister to halt the EU Withdrawal Bill to ensure it does not reduce the remit of the Scottish Parliament.
Speaking ahead of the SNP’s emergency debate on devolution in the House of Commons, the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber said the UK Government must now “come to the table with emergency legislation not just more excuses”.
Blackford will say Theresa May has a personal responsibility to bring forward emergency legislation to resolve the crisis. The Sewel Convention established the long-held practice that the UK Government cannot legislate in devolved areas without the consent of the devolved parliament. The Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly, by 93 to 30, to refuse legislative consent for Clause 15 of the EU Withdrawal Bill, and as such it should not have passed through the House of Commons without the Clause being removed.
The Clause would allow the UK Government to legislate in important devolved areas including the environment, food standards, agriculture and fishing. The SNP were joined by Labour, Green and Lib Dem MSPs in voting to withhold consent – with only the Scottish Tories backing the power grab.
Speaking ahead of the debate, Blackford said: “Scotland will not accept or forget the Tory government’s smash and grab raid on the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament – it will haunt the Tories for a generation just as the Poll Tax did. The UK Government must now come to the table with emergency legislation, not just more excuses that simply will not wash with the Scottish people.”
Blackford was expelled from the chamber last Wednesday for repeatedly challenging the Speaker after protesting that only 15 minutes was allocated to debate the bill’s impact on Scottish devolution. It was passed in the Commons last Tuesday – with Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington the only member allowed to speak.
SNP MPs walked out of Prime Minister’s Questions the following day in protest after Blackford was expelled for the rest of the day as he pressed his point to the Speaker John Bercow.
Bercow suspended Blackford following his “repeated refusal” to take his seat when told to do so. Later in the week Bercow accepted a request by the SNP for an emergency debate on devolution today.
The row between the two governments centres on the transfer of powers from Brussels to Westminster after Brexit. Under the bill London will take charge of 24 devolved policy areas for up to seven years. The Scottish Government says this means demolishing the principle at the heart of the devolution settlement by giving Westminster the final say on these devolved areas.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell yesterday said the UK Government will offer no new proposals to break the deadlock, adding that he did not think a settlement could be reached. He rejected calls from the SNP and Labour for him to stand aside ahead of the emergency debate.
“There won’t be any new proposals,” he told BBC Sunday Politics Scotland. “There’s nothing new in the sense that these matters have been debated extensively, the Scottish Government have a position which they’ve had for a year, they don’t seem to have suggested any basis on which to change that position.
“The Welsh Government was able to accept the huge compromise the UK Government made. The Scottish Government are still in exactly the same position they were a year ago. I don’t think there is a settlement to be had. I’ve always looked to bring forward agreed amendments, amendments that had been agreed with the Scottish Government, but it’s become quite clear throughout this process that it’s not possible to reach that agreement.”
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard told the programme the party’s MPs would “use every means at our disposal” to try to protect the devolution settlement which was “very much under threat”. “We are talking here about a decision of the Scottish Parliament,” he said.
“I think its incumbent on David Mundell and Theresa May to continue discussions and try to bring forward proposals to the House of Commons.”
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