Nicola Sturgeon has warned against a “power grab” on Holyrood amid claims the UK Government could use Brexit legislation to undermine devolution agreements.
The First Minister said it would be “absolutely unacceptable” if powers repatriated from the European Union (EU) in devolved areas such as fishing and agriculture did not come to the Scottish Parliament.
Speaking during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said: “The issue, of course, around the Great Repeal Bill is about powers currently with the EU, that if they are to be repatriated in areas that are currently wholly devolved – agriculture, fishing, for example – where should those powers go?
“Now, under the current terms of the Scotland Act, those powers should automatically come to this chamber but nobody in the UK Government, and I discussed this with the Prime Minister on Monday, nobody on the Conservative benches will give that guarantee, which leads me to suspect that what the Tories are actually planning is a power grab on this parliament, and that will be absolutely unacceptable.”
Scotland’s Brexit Minister Mike Russell said the proposed legislation risked undermining the devolution settlement and exposed “empty promises” on further powers for Scotland.
He said: “The white paper for this Brexit bill leaves many important questions unanswered, such as the nature of the powers for the Scottish Parliament, and the need for the consent of the Scottish Parliament [for the UK to legislate on devolved issues] under the Sewel Convention.
“There are no new powers proposed for the parliament beyond those required to fix the mess that will be caused by Brexit, exposing what have so far been empty promises from the UK Government.”
Mr Russell added: “For the UK government to seek to impose legislative frameworks on these areas would be to take the unprecedented step of extending its powers over Scotland and must not take place. The Scottish Parliament’s competences must not be diminished as a result of Brexit.”
However, Brexit Secretary David Davis reaffirmed his claim that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should expect a “significant increase” in powers for their administrations.
He gave the assurance after being pressed by Labour to guarantee that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU would not be used as an “excuse to hoard powers in Whitehall”.
Mr Davis said: “No powers currently exercised by them will be taken away. We’ve said that time and again.
“We also expect there to be a significant increase in the powers exercised by the devolved administrations.
“But I say this – we have to maintain the United Kingdom internal market too.
“That is four times as important to Scottish businesses, for example, as the European market.
“It’s incredibly important to Northern Irish and Welsh businesses too, and the administrations understand that.”
