WESTMINSTER’S proposed trade bill could open up devolved governments to legal action by foreign investors, an MP has claimed.
Wendy Chamberlain said the UK Internal Market Bill could allow foreign investors to sue devolved governments if they believed that government’s standards would impact a trade deal.
The issue came to light during a debate on amendments made to the UK Internal Market Bill by the House of Lords, some of which concern devolution and input from devolved governments.
Ms Chamberlain questioned the need for the UKIM bill, given there are other mechanisms (called Common Frameworks) which are supposed to manage the extent of policy after the Brexit transition period ends.
She said: “Because of the international law-breaking clauses, insufficient attention has been given to how this bill would impact the devolution settlements.”
On the amendments themselves, she said: “I find the Government’s rationale for refusing these changes highly frustrating, and a key case in point is the interaction between the common frameworks and the internal market.
“Why do we need this legislation when the common frameworks have buy-in from all the devolved nations?”
She said the reason given for the need for the bill by government was not specific, and when she asked for a “concrete example” of a scenario in which it would be needed, she was given a hypothetical.
SNP MP Alan Brown also questioned the bill and the government’s refusal to accept amendments by the Lords which would require consent from devolved governments for the UK government to invest in projects in its area.
He also said Boris Johnson was “anti-Scottish”.
Speaking to MPs he said: We all know that the Prime Minister doesn’t believe in devolution….Over the years in fact, the Prime Minister’s comments are nothing less than anti-Scottish.
“It’s quite clear there is a huge resentment that the people of Scotland, the people of Wales, vote for governments that are not tory.
“If this government has any scintilla at all of respect for the union, and for devolution, they would accept these reasonable amendments.”
SNP business spokesman Drew Hendry said that the Bill is “unwanted” and undermines devolution.
He said: “ This Bill is unwanted, unwarranted and it unashamedly undermines devolution. It’s an attack on the democratically elected Scottish Parliament and the vast, vast majority of the Scottish public who value it.
“Since 2014, promises to them have been routinely broken in this place. Their votes and their views have been ignored over Brexit and now Scotland will be the only country not to get what it voted for in that referendum.”
After the debate MPs voted 356 to 259, majority 97, to disagree with three Lords amendments linked to calls to give the devolved administrations a key role in the future operation of the UK internal market post-Brexit.
A majority of MPs (357 for, 259 against) also voted to remove several Lords amendments and replace them with a Government proposal to seek consent of Scottish ministers, Welsh ministers and Northern Ireland’s economy department before making regulations under a section of the Bill.
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