Warning Brexit bill to mean loss of powers
SCOTLAND’S Brexit Secretary has claimed Holyrood stands to lose more than 100 parliamentary powers if the repeal bill is passed.
Michael Russell said the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill to deal with powers returning from the European Parliament will give Westminster control over 111 areas currently devolved to Scotland.
He said: “In agriculture, fisheries, in environment - in 111 areas I think - are intersections of what they call European competence with Scottish Parliament competence.
“Those are all areas where we could sensibly sit down and say how do we work together on these things. In fact, we’re not allowed to work together on any of those things.
“So in every one of those 111 things which touch the lives of everybody in Scotland – farming, fishing, environment, justice, education – in all those areas the intention is that the UK Government will take those powers and they have not said that they will return a single one of those powers, which deal with devolved areas, to the Scottish Parliament, or to the Welsh Assembly and so is Northern Ireland.”
He said everyone who believes in devolution should be “con- cerned” about the bill, which is designed to transpose EU law into British law so the same rules apply on the day of Brexit as the day before.
Mr Russell is due to give a statement at Holyrood on the bill later today.
Theresa May is facing a titanic battle over her flagship Brexit bill, after scores of amendments were tabled within hours of it passing its first parliamentary hurdle.
A total of 157 amendments to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, covering 59 pages, were published, including many from senior Conservative europhiles.
The Bill cleared its second reading in the House of Commons by a margin of 36 in the early hours, after a mooted rebellion by Remain-backing Tories failed to materialise and seven Labour MPs rebelled against Jeremy Corbyn to vote with the Government.
But the raft of changes pro- posed by Tories including former ministers Kenneth Clarke, Dominic Grieve, Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry, serves notice on the Prime Minister that she faces a rough ride in the remaining stages of the Bill’s passage through Parliament.
MPs have approved a timetable guaranteeing 64 hours of debate in the following stage, when the Bill will be scrutinised line by line and votes taken on proposed amendments.