THE Tories have finally admitted that the Brexit repeal Bill is a power grab.
A memo sent round cabinet members, including Theresa May, and obtained by the BBC, 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!”
The ‘claims’ have been difficult to counter because they are true! https://t.co/bfW0D1rnwy
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 8, 2018
It comes ahead of this afternoon’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council.
Ministers from Scotland, Wales, and the UK will once again discuss the government’s EU Withdrawal Bill.
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 their EU Withdrawal Bill, initially called for all those powers to go straight to Whitehall for ministers to decide what should be given to MSPs and what should be kept in national frameworks.
This was described by Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones as a “power grab”.
Though there has been some agreement between the governments 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, say they should be asked to agree to changes.
There is, it seems, little chance of agreement at today’s meeting.
Without that consensus then it means any amendments made to the Government’s Bill will likely not be able to gain the consent of MSPs in Edinburgh and AMs in Wales.
Though that won't stop Brexit, it will take the Prime Minister into uncharted constitutional waters.
In the letter, the UK Government say they can show the reasonableness of their side by publishing details of the "limited number of policy areas" where they believe frameworks should operate on a UK-wide basis.
Both the Scottish and Welsh governments have tabled their own stop-gap Brexit legislation, in case of no agreement.
On Wednesday the Scottish Government's "Continuity Bill" passed its first vote at Holyrood by 94 votes to 30.
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