Academic hits out over lack of facts on Brexit

Dundee professor says it is ‘impossible to know what’s going on’

A Dundee academic has rebuked ministers for keeping MSPs and the public in the dark over their increasingly fraught constitutional row.

Alan Page, the professor of public law at Dundee University, intervened as Holyrood voted by 94 to 30 in favour of the general principles of the SNP’s rival Brexit legislation.

Neil Findlay, for Scottish Labour, which backed the bill, said it was “unacceptable” that MSPs were being forced to support the Continuity Bill while “in the dark” about what is “causing this stand-off”.

The governments in London and Edinburgh have been at loggerheads on the destination of powers returning from Brussels, which led to SNP ministers bringing forward their own bill.

Speaking to a Holyrood Committee, Professor Page said leaving politicians, voters and academics out of the loop was “not good enough”.

“It’s impossible to know what’s going on,” he added. “I wonder to what extent members of this parliament are any better informed about it.”

The Continuity Bill, which could be passed by the end of the month and the Conservative’s Withdrawal Bill aim to ensure there are no gaps in the statute book when Brexit happens.

Scottish ministers say the UK version amounts to a “power grab” on competencies that belong to Holyrood.

The Tories say a minority of the returning powers need to be run from Westminster while UK-wide rules and regulations are drawn up. Both sides are due to sit down in London today to try to break the deadlock.

Today we report the Brexit-related concerns of Dundee law professor Alan Page. The academic takes ministers to task for failing to keep the public updated with progress as Britain continues to negotiate its departure from the EU.

Saying it is “impossible” to understand what is going on, he also expresses fears that MSPs know precious little more than lay members of the public.

The arguments, presented to a Holyrood committee, are well made.

While it would have been naive to assume that the public would be privy to every twist and turn in the negotiating process, we might reasonably have expected to have been informed by now as to what powers Holyrood would be granted.

Professor Page is quite right to express concern over the apparent impasse.

Is Scotland genuinely being denied rights it deserves due to a “power grab” or is Westminster simply acting in the best interests of the UK as a whole?

Given the astonishing lack of information, it is indeed impossible for most people to know.

The process of withdrawing from the EU is clearly complex but both the UK and Scottish governments would be well advised to provide some form of meaningful progress updates rather than resorting to the kind of petty political bickering which helps nobody.

Professor Alan Page.