A former Conservative Scottish Secretary has savaged David Cameron's 'One Nation' slogan as he called on the Prime Minister to rethink 'half-baked' plans for extra devolution to Scotland.

 

The Prime Minister has used the 'One Nation' phrase continuously since his election victory last month and it was a key theme of last week's Queen's Speech.

Lord Forsyth told peers in the House of Lords: "We are not one nation, we are a United Kingdom."

He also accused the Tory government of making a mistake with its plans to push ahead with the Smith Commission proposals on extra powers for Scotland and so-called 'English votes for English laws' in the House of Commons.

The government says that the current situation, which allows Scottish MPs to vote on issues that do not affect their constituents is unfair.

But opponents argue that most laws have significant knock-on effects north of the border.

Lord Forsyth told fellow peers that while the issue was one for the House of Commons "I'm not very keen on Evel."

After the issue had been debated in the light of Irish nationalism the Commons "concluded that (it was right to) reduce the number of MPs from Ireland, so there was not two classes of MP, and I have to say I think that was the correct response".

Lord Forsyth said that pushing ahead with Evel would allow people in Scotland to claim that they had been "disenfranchised".

The move "would give the SNP a stick with which to beat the Union and this parliament", he added.

He called on David Cameron to "rethink" the government's position and accept cannot constitutional reform cannot go ahead "unilaterally" as he backed a call by Labour and the Liberal Democrats for a constitutional convention.

He said that voters had spoken on the proposals in the Smith Commission at the election.

"All the unionist parties stood on a platform of bringing in the proposals of the Smith Commission," he said.

"And the SNP took 56 seats out of 59.

"This is not a credible solution".

Lord Forsyth also warned that the SNP's call for fiscal autonomy would be an "absolute disaster" for Scotland as he predicted that it "would be a very sad day indeed" if the Union was broken up by the SNP, who, he said "want to mislead the voters and try to substitute for the politics of class those of identity."

Liberal Democrat peer Jeremy Purvis also called for an end to what he described as a piecemeal approach to devolution that pits one part of the UK against another.

Lord Purvis has proposed a constitutional convention to devise a lasting power-sharing arrangement that safeguards the UK's future.

His proposals would see the formation of a 12-month convention to consider devolution as well as reform of the electoral system and of the House of Lords

The convention would include representatives from political parties and local authorities, but half of the membership would be drawn from outside politics.

Lord Purvis said: "The new powers that will be delivered to Scotland through the new Scotland Bill are welcome. We also need to secure the full powers for Wales set out in the Silk Commission.

"But piecemeal devolution cannot deliver the stability we need.

"Pitting one part of the UK against another is no way to secure the future of our country.

"We need to abolish the make-do and mend approach to reform that has let the SNP move the devolution goalposts time and again in a way that might work for them, but not for Scotland or the rest of the UK."

SNP MP Pete Wishart said: "As a Lib Dem peer in the unelected, undemocratic House of Lords, Jeremy Purvis has no democratic mandate.

"The time and effort of he and the few remaining democratically elected Lib Dem MPs would be better spent holding the Tories to account on their promise to the people of Scotland to deliver the Smith Commission proposals in full."

"After all, Jeremy Purvis's colleague Tavish Scott - a member of the Smith Commission - is part of a cross-party committee that just last month concluded the UK Government proposals fall far short of the Smith agreement.

"The Lib Dems were all but wiped out in Scotland at the general election after leaving a trail of broken promises behind them in government. Having betrayed voters on everything from tuition fees to welfare cuts and austerity, the people of Scotland don't trust them to deliver anything."