DAMIAN Green, Theresa May’s deputy, believes the Scottish Parliament will in the end agree to give its consent to the UK Government’s flagship Repeal Bill and said that the atmosphere between London and Edinburgh was “steadily improving”.

The First Secretary, speaking at a Westminster lunch, also decried the rising level of political abuse, which, he told journalists, was fuelling an "atmosphere of increasing hatred," that threatened to poison democratic politics in Britain.

Earlier this week, Mr Green, who has been leading the UK Government’s push to get Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues to agree to easing the passage of the EU Withdrawal Bill, claimed after a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on Monday, that the First Minister’s charge that the legislation was a power-grab by Whitehall had been “put behind us”.

However, within minutes Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Brexit minister, insisted this was not the case; that the bill was indeed a power-grab and that if the UK Government did not change it, then Ms Sturgeon would not recommend Holyrood giving its consent.

Asked if he thought the SNP administration was bluffing in its threat of withholding consent, Mr Green said: “We are not engaged in any kind of power-grab. We’ve said that the powers that have been held in Brussels throughout our membership of the EU obviously will come back to this country and we will at the end of the process devolve more powers to Scotland and, indeed, Wales and we hope Northern Ireland than were there beforehand.

“So there is no intention, there is not going to be a power-grab,” declared the First Secretary.

“What the UK Government will continue to do is keep having those constructive discussions with the devolved administrations and in the end I hope and expect that we can persuade them that they will be able to give legislative consent motions because that will be seen to be in the interests not least of people and businesses in Scotland.”

Asked if Brexit could still lead to the break-up of Britain, Mr Green replied: “I absolutely don’t think it will lead to the break-up of Britain.

“I would characterise the atmosphere in the talks as steadily improving. We have now had two bilaterals and one JMC and the fact that we jointly agreed on the principles for progress at the JMC shows there is a solution available in those negotiations, which, with goodwill on both sides, I’m sure we will get to,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet minister decried the lowering of the tone of political discourse in Britain.

He noted how in recent years there had been a "ridiculous" rise in routine comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis as people sought to portray their opponents as "not quite human".

Following the murder last year of MP Jo Cox, he said politicians and journalists needed to be mindful of the impact of their words when they went in "studs up" on an opponent.

"If mainstream politicians and journalists start to behave like Twitter trolls and conspiracy theorists, then democracy is in danger,” he insisted.

"I do think we need to respect each other motives and treat each other's views with courtesy. If we don't, we risk feeding an atmosphere of increasing hatred which at the most horrible extremes led to an event like the killing of Jo Cox."

In his speech, Mr Green took a lighthearted sideswipe at former chancellor George Osborne, now the editor of the London Evening Standard, who was sacked by Theresa May when she became Prime Minister.

He said that from reading the paper he knew Mrs May was personally to blame for Ben Stokes' nightlife, Hurricane Ophelia, and that as October goes into November the "sun shines for a smaller time every day".

"The Evening Standard, Russia Today with less George Galloway," he said in a reference to the Kremlin-backed broadcaster, now called RT.

He also joked that as the Government's "general fixer" his job was "to make sure that my colleagues stay united and show the public a great unity of purpose, spirit and message", adding: "It's all going terribly well."