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".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel