‘Biggest democratic deficit in post-war Scotland’ since Brexit

Brexit has created the biggest democratic deficit in post-war Scotland, according to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

She said she had yet to hear any detail from the Tory leadership contestants about how they would leave the EU.

Speaking at the Law Society of Scotland conference on two decades of devolution, the Scottish first minister argued the actions of the UK Government since the Brexit referendum have left constitutional conventions “in shreds”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “20 years on from the establishment of our parliament, we face the most important example of democratic deficit in Scotland’s post-war history.”

She claimed the UK Government had acted “in a way which pays little or no heed to Scotland’s wishes, priorities and values”.

Accusing the Tories of seeking to “deepen division rather than bring people together” in the wake of the EU referendum, she added the UK Government had “sought to interpret the result in the hardest way possible and red lines got drawn that didn’t have to be drawn”.

With just over four months until the UK’s renegotiated Brexit date, Ms Sturgeon said: “I haven’t heard any detail of anything that Jeremy Hunt or Boris Johnson has said about Brexit, how they’re going to deliver it by October 31 or how they’re going to renegotiate something that the EU has said is not up for renegotiation.

“But if the recent experience of the Scottish Government dealing with Tory politicians in Westminster is anything to go by, there’s not much of what they say is either deliverable or turns out to be delivered.”