Constitutional crisis is brewing, says Salmond

The triggering of the Article 50 process without a legislative consent motion (LCM) from the Scottish Parliament would “result in a constitutional crisis”, Alex Salmond has said.

The former First Minister said the UK Government is looking “increasingly boxed in” as it goes to the Supreme Court today in the latest stage of the legal battle over Brexit.

The UK Government is asking the highest court in the land to overturn a High Court ruling that the Prime Minister must seek MPs’ approval to trigger the process of taking Britain out of the European Union.

If the appeal is unsuccessful, the Government’s plans for Brexit could potentially be thrown into disarray with the devolved nations also intervening creating an increasingly complicated political landscape.

Speaking on the Sunday Politics Scotland programme from Aberdeenshire, Mr Salmond said: “If the Supreme Court decided there is to be a legislative consent motion in the Scottish Parliament, then I think we could assume that Philip Hammond would beat a road back to Edinburgh and adopt an altogether different tone than the one he adopted this week.

“It would put the Scottish Parliament, and in particular Nicola Sturgeon, in an incredibly powerful position.”

And if the Scottish Parliament voted against the motion, Mr Salmond said this “would certainly be a constitutional crisis that would have to be resolved”.

“That crisis might even be a good thing for Scotland because it would put us in an extremely powerful position in terms of securing the interests of Scotland in the negotiations.”