Sturgeon ramps up her rhetoric over Brexit ‘power grab’
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of trying to use Brexit to ‘sow division’ across the UK after she told Theresa May she will not support key legislation unless it is changed.
The SNP leader yesterday wrote a joint letter with Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones which brands the EU Withdrawal Bill a ‘power grab’ and said she will not allow MSPs to support it unless it is amended.
She wants all 111 powers in devolved areas to automatically transfer from Brussels to Holyrood when Britain formally leaves the European Union.
But yesterday Mrs May’s deputy Damian Green said he was not prepared to do anything that ‘risks undermining the benefits of the UK’.
Tory ministers believe UK-wide frameworks are required in a wide range of areas including food labelling, the treatment of infectious diseases, regulation of chemicals and the use of pesticides.
Mr Green, the First Secretary of State, insisted that discussion needs to take place about whether control of the 111 powers in 64 policy areas come to Holyrood or Westminster.
He said: ‘The important thing now is to work our way through these lists and find the areas where we will need to maintain a common UK or GB approach, as well as those areas where it will make sense to transfer powers direct to the devolved governments.
‘When it is better to devolve then that is what we will do, as we have done for the last 20 years.
‘The Repeal Bill aims to maximise certainty for individuals and businesses as we leave the EU. The UK Government stands ready to listen to those who offer improvements to the Bill – but we will do nothing that risks undermining the benefits of the UK.
‘Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast will receive more decision making powers as a result of this process. But the UK Government will not risk our internal UK market, or make life more difficult or more expensive for UK companies, workers or consumers.
‘We all observe the same broad EU rules now. Doing things four
‘SNP record is to sow division’
different ways – in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – will not be the best way if it adds costs to companies and customers across the UK. I hope and expect we can make progress in the talks planned for the coming week.’
On Monday, Mr Green is due to meet SNP Brexit Minister Michael Russell and Deputy First Minister John Swinney for further talks in London. Ahead of that meeting, Mr Russell will meet Tory MSPs Jackson Carlaw and Adam Tomkins to ask for their support in demanding new powers.
Mr Carlaw, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: ‘The test is simple. Let’s devolve what we can, but keep UK rules where necessary. That way we can ensure powers lie as close as possible to people while keeping the benefits to Scotland of one UK market.
‘Unfortunately, the SNP’s record on Brexit over the last year has been to sow division and use it to push for a second referendum. We genuinely hope there is now an opportunity for a fresh start.
‘With a reasonable approach from the Scottish Government, we can work together to both strengthen devolution and to keep the benefits of our own UK.’
Miss Sturgeon and Mr Jones said in their joint letter to Mrs May that the EU Withdrawal Bill ‘can be made to work with, not against, devolution’. They also published amendments saying changes were needed to the legislation to ‘respect the hard-won devolution settlements’.
The UK Government provided the Scottish Government with a list of 111 powers returning from the EU which ‘intersect’ with the devolution settlement in Scotland, including a wide range of powers in agriculture, fisheries, the environment and justice.
Mr Russell said: ‘We have made it repeatedly clear that we are not opposed in principle to UK-wide arrangements, but devolved policy areas must come back to the Scottish parliament, where they properly lie, and then we can work towards an agreement.’
But the UK Government argues that the Scottish Government currently sets policy within frameworks which apply across the UK and are currently set by the EU. It believes it is crucial these UK-wide frameworks continue in order to protect the British single market.
Among a series of examples provided yesterday was the need for a similar approach to food labelling across the UK to prevent Scottish firms facing different regulations when they sell to England.
The UK Government also said that UK-wide frameworks are needed on measures to prevent infectious disease in animals, regulation of the use of chemicals to prevent cleaning materials being subject to different requirements on either side of the Border, and for crops grown across the UK to be subject to the same pesticide rules.
Labour shadow Scottish Secretary Lesley Laird said yesterday: ‘It is clear that the EU Withdrawal Bill is now unsustainable in its current form.’
‘Respect devolution settlements’
THE more Nicola Sturgeon says about Brexit, the more her party’s incoherent position on the EU is exposed.
The SNP leader claims Westminster is engaged in a naked power grab, seizing influence for itself that should by rights be heading for Holyrood. It is nothing of the sort, of course. Instead Westminster is moving to identify which areas will in time be best handled on a UK-wide basis and those which will, in due course, be the responsibility of Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.
Agriculture and fishing are obvious examples. Surely it is the case that we need a UK-wide framework in place first to protect these key industries as we leave the EU? A piecemeal approach at this stage would be a recipe for chaos. Uppermost in the UK Government’s approach is what is best for the country as a whole – whereas the SNP’s priority is, as ever, the SNP and its separatist agenda.
Damian Green, First Secretary of State, could not be clearer. ‘The Repeal Bill aims to maximise certainty for individuals and businesses as we leave the EU.’
Compare that enlightened approach with Miss Sturgeon’s demand for 111 powers to automatically transfer from Brussels to Holyrood – by-passing Westminster. (Isn’t it telling that, given she has 34 Nationalist MPs in the Commons, Miss Sturgeon clearly has little faith in their ability to apply any scrutiny?)
And again the SNP’s nonsensical approach is all too apparent. Miss Sturgeon is utterly convinced all Scots are rampant Europhiles, despite the fact that 1,018,322 of us – and many of them card-carrying SNP members – voted Leave.
And she wants all these powers so that they can, in short order, be handed back to Brussels as the SNP falls over itself to deny the reality of the Brexit referendum result.
The SNP is at its usual game of sowing division, desperate to have some faux grievance so it can howl about Westminster’s perfidy – the party’s usual scapegoat to distract from its own woeful governance.
It matters not a jot to them that this ersatz outrage creates uncertainty, unsettles business and puts jobs and investment at risk.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party nationally must not allow itself to be distracted by the sideshow that is Boris Johnson.
Prime Minister Theresa May has enough on her plate without the Foreign Secretary shamelessly angling for her job with his ‘vision for Brexit’ that is really his prospectus for a tilt at 10 Downing Street.
If Mr Johnson and Miss Sturgeon had the best interests of Britons at heart, not just their own selfish ambition, they would both pipe down and help Mrs May secure the best possible Brexit deal for the UK.