Sturgeon: ‘English votes plan is unacceptable’

NICOLA Sturgeon has written to the UK Government to highlight a series of concerns over its currently “unacceptable” plans to implement English votes for English laws (Evel).

The First Minister has demanded Westminster fully engages with the Scottish Government over the proposals, saying there is a “clear Scottish interest” in the plans.

In her letter to Scottish Secretary David Mundell, the SNP leader called for greater clarity over the way Bills would be assessed as applying, or not applying, to Scotland.

And she called for a meeting with Mr Mundell and Chris Grayling, the Leader of the House of Commons, to discuss the proposals.

MPs, led by Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael, last week staged an emergency debate on the controversial plans, protesting that they would mean effectively an English Parliament within the ranks of the Commons – creating two tiers of MPs. The UK Government later promised a redraft of the controversial proposals and postponed a Commons vote on the issue until at least September. Writing to Mr Mundell yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government has “a number of concerns about the proposals”. She wrote: “There is a clear Scottish interest in Evel because of the impact it will have, and the proposals, as they currently stand, are unacceptable.”