HOLYROOD’S consent to Westminster legislating on its behalf on Brexit is “not a given,” Michael Russell has made clear, raising the possibility of a constitutional battle ahead.

The Scottish Government’s Brexit minister stressed how Edinburgh wanted to co-operate with London and that it was “not looking for a fight,” but he pointed out that, equally, MSPs would “not be the midwives for reducing devolved competencies”.

Mr Russell made his remarks at a conference on Brexit in London organised by ABI, the Association of British Insurers.

They came after David Davis, the Brexit secretary, confirmed the UK Government would seek to secure a Legislative Consent Motion[LCM] – the means by which Holyrood agrees to Westminster legislating on normally devolved matters – on the main Brexit legislation: the Repeal Bill. At the weekend, he warned Nicola Sturgeon and her colleagues that if they sought to disrupt the legislative process, then it would leave a “black hole” in British law, making it unworkable.

Asked if it was, therefore, a given that MSPs would agree to Mr Davis’s request for an LCM, Mr Russell replied: “No. It’s not a given either way because we have not seen the bill or the detail of the bill, nor have we looked at what the LCM will say. Until we see the bill and we are likely, I understand, to see it by the end of this week or at least our officials will, then it’s impossible to say what the situation is.

“We have no interest in preventing what will be necessary changes to the law because otherwise there will be problems with it. Equally, we will not be the midwives for reducing devolved competences, so that’s the issue,” the Scottish Government minister declared.

He complained that there had been no real communication “whatsoever” with Whitehall on the Brexit legislation despite the Scottish Government calling for a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee.

“Officials have not seen the bill in any way; I know it sounds remarkable but they haven’t; not even the lawyers. So when that bill is seen, then it will be possible to decide what the situation is.

“I’m not looking for a fight for a fight’s sake but we will not accept the diminution of devolved competences,” insisted the minister.

Making clear that, after the General Election in which Theresa May had lost her Commons majority, “due process” now had to be followed, he explained: “We don’t think they did[so] during the Article 50 letter process because…we weren’t consulted.

“If we’re then going to have a process of negotiation in which we’re not involved, that’s not due process and it’s very problematic for the outcomes because some of those outcomes will have to be implemented by us. But if we haven’t been part of the discussions, how will we know what we are implementing; it’s just daft,” Mr Russell added.

Meanwhile, he told Holyrood’s finance and constitution committee on Wednesday that the certainty on Brexit which existed before June 8 now no longer existed and that while the trajectory still appeared to be in that direction, he was “not 100 per cent convinced the exit will happen".