Clashes over Brexit ruling as May heads back to EU
● Supreme Court says Holyrood Brexit bill as a whole is lawful ● But SNP accuse London of shifting goalposts over powers
A Supreme Court ruling that almost entirely asserts Holyrood’s authority over 24 disputed powers returning from Brussels after Brexit has been lauded “an important vindication” for the Scottish Government.
Nicola Sturgeon claimed victory after the ruling found only one section of the Scottish Parliament’s Continuity Bill was outside Holyrood’s competence, putting her at odds with Westminster.
Both the UK and Scottish governments claimed to have been vindicated after the Supreme Court partially upheld Scottish Parliament Brexit legislation at the heart of the row over an alleged “power grab”.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that, except for one section, the Scottish Parliament’s Continuity Bill – which asserts Holyrood’s authority over 24 disputed powers in devolved areas returning from Brussels after Brexit – is within the Scottish Parliament’s competence.
Only Section 17, which would require UK ministers to get the consent of their Scottish counterparts before passing subordinate legislation in devolved areas, was found to be outside Holyrood’s competence.
However, judges said while the Scottish bill “as a whole would not be outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament”, because the UK Withdrawal Act, which brings EU law into British statute, received Royal Assent while the Continuity Bill was challenged at the Supreme Court, several more sections of the Scottish bill are now also outside Holyrood’s competence.
The UK Withdrawal Act was added to Schedule 4 of the Scotland Act – a list of legislation that is protected and cannot be modified by the Scottish Parliament.
Responding to the judgement, the Scottish Government accused London of “constitutional vandalism” and having “changed the rules of the game midway through the match”.
Scottish Government officials will now consider the judgement and hold talks with opposition parties at Holyrood before deciding on their next steps.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted the ruling was “an important vindication” for the Scottish Government.
“With the exception of just one section, the Scottish Continuity Bill WAS within Scottish Parliament competence at point of introduction,” she said.
The Continuity Bill was supported by most opposition MSPS despite the Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer issuing an opinion that the legislation went beyond Holyrood’s competences.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “The Supreme Court has provided muchneeded legal clarity that the Continuity Bill goes beyond the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
“This demonstrates clearly that it was the right thing for the UK government to refer the bill to the Court.
“It is now for the Scottish Government to consider how to proceed and we hope Holyrood will take a pragmatic approach and work constructively with us as we leave the EU.”
The Scottish Government’s constitutional affairs secretary Michael Russell said parts of the Holyrood bill had been “thwarted as a result of steps taken by the UK government”.
“For the first time ever, UK law officers delayed an act of the Scottish Parliament from becoming law by referring it to the Supreme Court,” Mr Russell said.
“Then the UK government, for the first time ever, invited the UK Parliament to pass a bill which they knew would cut the powers of the Scottish Parliament without its consent.
“The UK government changed the rules of the game midway through the match.
“This is an act of constitutional vandalism, but that does not take away from the fact this judgment makes clear MSPS were perfectly entitled to prepare Scotland’s laws for Brexit at the time this bill was passed.”
At Holyrood, the Tories’ constitutional spokesman Adam Tomkins said the Supreme Court ruling was “judicial vindication for those of us who considered that the SNP’S socalled continuity bill unlawful”, adding the judges had “eviscerated the bill, leaving it in tatters”.
But Scotland’s top law officer, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC, told him: “It’s clear that at the time this Parliament passed the bill, it was in its entirety with the exception of one section within the competence of this Parliament.”
He told MSPS the EU Withdrawal Act had subsequently imposed “new limits on the legislative competence of this Parliament”.
“With the exception of just one section, the Scottish Continuity Bill WAS within Scottish Parliament competence at point of introduction.”
NICOLA STURGEON
May risks new efforts to force her out as ‘meaningful vote’ is delayed to January
Prime Minister Theresa May is set to face another attempt to topple her administration next week, with Labour and the SNP both considering motions of no confidence in the final days before parliament rises for Christmas.
Opposition parties are understood to be waiting to see if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn lodges a parliamentary motion of no confidence after the Prime Minister updates the Commons on this week’s EU Council summit, before launching their own bid to force a general election.
Yesterday Downing Street confirmed that the government would defy opposition demands,
Paris Gourtsoyannis
with MPS not being asked to vote on Mrs May’s Brexit deal before the end of this year.
A Number 10 spokeswoman said yesterday: “The ‘meaningful vote’ will not be brought to Parliament before Christmas.”
The spokeswoman said the vote – which was scheduled for Tuesday this week but postponed by the Prime
Minister after she accepted she would lose heavily – will come “as soon as possible in January”. A deadline of 21 January for parliament to vote on the Brexit terms is set out in legislation.
In Brussels, Mrs May played down the prospects of an “immediate breakthrough” on the so-called Northern Ireland border backstop in talks with EU leaders.
The Prime Minister arrived for the summit seeking fresh legal and political assurances to help get her Brexit deal “over the line” in Parliament.
However, she acknowledged there was a limit to the progress she could make on the issue which has turned so many of her MPS against her during the two-day EU summit meeting.
“My focus now is on ensuring
that I can get those assurances that we need to get this deal over the line, because I genuinely believe it’s in the best interests of both sides the UK and the EU – to get the deal over the line, to agree a deal,” she said.
“But I recognise the strength of concern in the House of Commons and that’s what I will be pushing to colleagues.
“I don’t expect an immediate breakthrough, but what I do hope is that we can start work as quickly as possible on the assurances that are necessary.”
EU leaders arriving for the meeting insisted that while they want to be helpful to Mrs May, they are not prepared to reopen negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement. Another emergency summit is expected in January.
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, who met Mrs May in The Hague on Tuesday, said they need to “demystify” the backstop.
“It will be impossible to break open the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement. That is a given,” he said.
Mr Rutte added: “There is nobody in his right mind in the European Union who wants to trigger the backstop because it is bad news not only for the UK but for the EU.”
Mr Corbyn said: “It is clear there will be no changes to the deal the Prime Minister brought back last month.
“There must be no more dither and delay … the Prime Minister should put her deal before Parliament next week.”