PRO-independence industry group Business for Scotland have called on Nicola Sturgeon to hold a referendum on Boris Johnsnon’s post-Brexit power grab.
The call comes after the Prime Minister told a group of Tory MPs that devolution had been a “disaster”.
Business for Scotland, who were key campaigners during the 2014 indyref, suggest the SNP Government asks voters if they “agree that the Scottish Parliament’s powers, granted under the various Scotland Acts, are permanent and cannot be altered or removed by any UK government without the Scottish Parliament’s majority agreement".
The group said holding a vote on the same day as the next Holyrood election would also “clearly demonstrate” the power of the Scottish Government to use their new Referendum Bill to “legally hold referendums on the governance of Scotland.”
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Last week a new poll revealed that most Scots believe any changes to Holyrood’s powers should only come into effect if voters agree to them.
The Panelbase survey for the Scot Goes Pop blog found that 66% of Scots think the changes proposed by Johnson’s controversial Internal Market Bill over the Scottish Parliament’s remit must be agreed in a referendum.
In a letter to the First Minister, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, the group’s CEO and co-ordinator of the grass roots led Believe in Scotland independence campaign, says “it is clear that devolution is coming under attack from the fallout of Westminster’s disastrous Brexit policy and its shambolic implementation.”
He adds: “The comments made by the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night have only served to heighten our concerns. The PM stated that ‘devolution has been a disaster north of the border’, that it was Tony Blair’s ‘biggest mistake’ and that there was no case for ‘handing down more powers from Westminster to the nations’.
“The Internal Market Bill allows the UK Government to override laws passed at Holyrood. It would also remove powers from Holyrood whilst ending devolution as we know it and the people of Scotland won’t allow that.
“This clearly shows the true face of the Westminster Government as anti-devolution and anti the Scottish Parliament. The promise of more powers, most clearly promoted with the Vow which was signed by all three unionist Westminster Party leaders, is now in tatters and it is clear that far from offering Scotland more powers to head off a second independence referendum, Westminster plans to take powers back from the Scottish Parliament whilst forcing Brexit on Scotland - thus it undermines the very promise of more powers that held the Union together in 2014."
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He says it is "vital that the Scottish Government acts now to protect devolution".
The businessman says if the First Minister should "only reject this idea if you can immediately outline a better course of action to protect Scotland’s Parliament and its powers from this disastrous Westminster power grab."
Last week’s Panelbase poll asked voters: “Do you think these reductions in the Scottish Parliament’s powers should only take effect if the Scottish people agree to them in a referendum?”
Some 66% of Scots responded yes, while 34% said no.
The poll also asked voters about their thoughts on The Vow and the Internal Market Bill.
It said: “Before the 2014 independence referendum, the three largest anti-independence parties issued a “Vow” promising that the Scottish Parliament is permanent. If the changes to the Scottish Parliament’s powers proposed by the Internal Market Bill take effect without the Scottish people agreeing to them in a new referendum, do you think The Vow will have been kept or broken?”
Some 63% responded that The Vow would be broken, while 37% thought it would have been kept.
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