The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Brexit progress criticised by devolved governments
Ministers argue process should have been paused or extended
Boris Johnson should have “paused” Brexit in March when Nicola Sturgeon suspended work on Scottish independence to better focus on the coronavirus crisis, a minister has said.
The prime minister’s decision to plough ahead with Brexit trade talks while the pandemic continues to sweep the UK has been described as “deeply regrettable” by Europe minister Jenny Gilruth.
The Scottish Government halted preparatory work for independence on March 30 in order to “focus all available resource” on combating Covid-19.
At the time, Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell wrote to Michael Gove to say: “We would now strongly suggest to the UK Government that the time has come for an equivalent action by you with regard to the Brexit process, and would ask you to institute a pause to EU/UK negotiations for at least six months.”
Since March, several rounds of unsuccessful Brexit negotiations have taken place and talks are to due to continue over the summer.
“I think, from a Scottish perspective, it should be said that we have paused our work on independence to focus on the coronavirus crisis,” Ms Gilruth said.
“It is really deeply regrettable that the UK Government has not paused their work on Brexit to focus on saving lives.”
The comments come just days after the UK Government rejected calls from the Scottish and Welsh first ministers to extend the Brexit transition period.
Ms Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford argued in a letter to the prime minister that a delay was needed in order to support businesses through their recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Gilruth, appearing at an Institute for Government event, said an extension “would give business time to plan”.
“We’ll do the best we can, but we are being hampered by not knowing what we need to implement because it’s still being negotiated, and it’s being negotiated at ridiculously tight timescales.”
The minister said the Scottish Government wanted to “reboot” the way cross-governmental discussions were held.
“We’re asking for a reboot in the way the UK Government involves the devolved governments in the Brexit process.
“Our view is that engagement between the UK Government and the devolved governments has often only served as window dressing rather than playing any meaningful role.”
Citing fisheries specifically, she said: “We tried to get movement on fisheries and requested our officials be in the room. That has been ruled out.
“It is really worrying that these talks are now going to go into detail without us being in the room.”
Welsh Europe minister Jeremy Miles, appearing before the same panel, said: “The promise was that once we got beyond the withdrawal agreement, we would be in the sunlit uplands of closer engagement.
“If anything, engagement has become worse.
“However this negotiation turns out, for good or ill, it will have been the UK Government’s negotiation. There is no sense in which it has been materially influenced by the devolved governments.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: “There continues to be very close engagement between the UK Government and the devolved administrations and we are committed to working closely with them throughout negotiations with the EU to ensure a future relationship that works in the interests of the whole of the UK.”