Keep Scottish MPs out of English issues

As Parliament devolves more power to Scotland, we must ensure that England gets a fair deal

For 20 years, the West Lothian question has been one of the thorniest issues in UK politics. It’s actually a simple question, posed by the then veteran Scottish Labour MP, Tam Dalyell. Why, he asked, should I be able to vote on issues that affect English constituencies, when the English MPs cannot vote on those same issues in mine?

This isn’t a conundrum that emerged as a result of the Scottish referendum. Nor was it generated by the big political changes in Scotland at the General Election. This has been puzzled over since the Seventies, though it gained particular traction after devolution in the Nineties, when power over issues such as health and education was given to the Scottish Parliament, and the Northern Ireland and Welsh assemblies. Today, the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, has no role at all in deciding how the Scottish NHS or its Welsh counterpart is run. In Wales, the health system is run by Labour in Cardiff; in Scotland it is run by the SNP in Edinburgh.

And yet Scotland’s MPs are able to overrule England’s on issues which only affect England, such as the microchipping of dogs, or taxing of carrier bags, or how the English determine policy on children with special educational needs.

Such inconsistencies have rumbled on for years. The time has come to resolve them. Scotland is about to take on more extensive devolved powers, including the right to set Scottish rates of income tax. Northern Ireland is being given additional tax raising powers. Wales will get a new package of powers shortly, though its settlement is much less extensive than in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and that must not be forgotten. We fully support devolution; but England cannot be left out of the changes.

What matters more than anything else is fairness. We cherish and value the Union that holds our nation together. But fairness must apply to all parts of the UK. We cannot leave the West Lothian question unanswered. The decisive votes on English income tax rates cannot be Scottish ones, when Scottish rates are exclusively in the preserve of Scottish politicians.

My predecessor, William Hague, worked carefully on plans to solve the irregularity, and these were set at the heart of our election manifesto. Our priority has been to restore fairness to our constitutional arrangements. This means that we need a solution which will ensure that changes to the governance of England cannot be imposed upon the English without their consent. When key areas such as policing and justice are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but not in Wales, then our reforms must provide fairness for Wales as well.

So this week we have started on a path to ensure that fairness. The process of passing laws in the United Kingdom will remain almost identical to what it is at present, with one key difference. At various stages of that process, a Government proposal that applies exclusively to constituencies in England, or sometimes in England and Wales, will need the majority support of the MPs who represent those constituencies if it is to become law.

Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs will continue to vote. They will continue to ask questions, to speak in debates, propose amendments, serve as Ministers - all the things that they can do now. But they won’t be able to use their votes to impose solutions on England that English MPs oppose.

Providing long term economic stability and growth for our country is at the heart of building One Nation, with security and opportunity for everyone. But we also need to bring our country together by sorting out a range of constitutional challenges. We need a fair devolution settlement. We need a new relationship with the European Union. We need a fair system of electoral boundaries. We need to give back to British citizens who have chosen to live for long periods overseas the right to vote and influence the future of the country that they and their children may one day return to.

We have made a start on that work, with Bills that will deliver devolution to Scotland and a referendum on the EU. Now it is time to consider England and redress the balance of fairness throughout the UK.