SNP accused of ‘misinformation and scaremongering’ over Brexit power grab

THE UK Government is hell-bent on a regulatory “race to the bottom” to strike trade deals after Brexit that threaten to drag Scotland down with it, Mike Russell has claimed.

The Constitution Secretary said the UK should “keep its hands off devolved powers” amid the growing row over where powers repatriated from Brussels will lie when the UK fully leaves the EU in 2021.

Mr Russell said the best way to ensure Scotland had sufficient autonomy would be as an independent member of the EU.

His comments come after Nicola Sturgeon accused the UK Government of a “full-scale assault on devolution” over reports it will not let Holyrood control state aid.

The Scottish Government says state aid should be repatriated to Holyrood after the current transition phase ends in the New Year, whereas the UK Government says it should be harmonised across the four nations to maintain a single UK internal market.

Mr Russell told BBC Radio Scotland: “The best way to solve this is for Scotland to be an independent member of the EU. In the meantime, the best way to solve this is for the UK to get its hands off devolved powers and stop trying to undermine devolution.”

He said he wanted to see state aid and other regulatory rules shadow those of the EU, not put in the hands of the UK and then lowered.

He said: “If the current UK Government, which is determined on a race to the bottom, wishes to lower those standards, then I want to keep them high. I would like them to keep them high and the best way to do that would be to give up the nonsense of Brexit. But if they’re insisting on spending all this money utterly pointlessly to make us poorer... then my job is to defend the Scottish interest which says ‘do not give these up, because that will lead to a very dangerous lowering of standards’.”

He added: “Last week there was much discussion about whether these [proposed Uk-level] powers would extend to trade deals, to health and safety and to food standards, and they will.

“There is no possibility of us accepting these changes.”

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw accused SNP ministers of starting a fight over powers Holyrood had never held while ignoring the 100 it was acquiring. “The important thing is that, as the transition arrangements end at the end of the year, that Scottish farmers, Scottish fisherman, Scottish food producers know that they can sell their produce across the whole of the UK,” he said.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack accused the Scottish Government of “misinformation and scaremongering” and “tired old claims of a ‘power grab’ that could not be further from the truth”.

He said: “The UK internal market is what makes Britain tick. It is good for business, jobs and consumers.

“We will set out our plans shortly. But they will work for Scotland’s economy and they will respect the devolution settlement.

“Scores of new powers will flow to Holyrood as a result of our