NICOLA Sturgeon has warned the “Tories are coming for devolution” after a senior Conservative peer suggested devolved powers could be returned to Westminster.

Lord Frost, a former UK Government Brexit minister, has claimed that the expansion of devolved powers to the Scottish Parliament over the years is playing into the campaign for independence and should be reversed.

He has also touted that a second referendum is “impossible” without “75 per cent of seats in the Scottish Parliament in favour of independence” over a 10-year period – an unrealistic mandate for any side of the constitutional debate.

Writing in the Telegraph, Lord Frost has suggested that the devolution settlement that set up the Scottish Parliament in 1999 “is not written in stone”.

He added: “It has evolved – all in one direction – since 1999. It can evolve back, too.”

Lord Frost said: “We can begin by stopping mission creep.

“The devolved administrations do not have powers in foreign relations or immigration – they are 'reserved matters'. So why was the SNP able to control who came into the country during the pandemic on the basis of public health laws? Why are they spending taxpayers’ money on their own 'embassies' overseas?

“If the UK Government does not police these boundaries, soon they will no longer exist.”

Lord Frost has claimedthere needs to be more clarity over the terms for any second independence referendum “which reflects the reality that it is wholly exceptional for states to allow their own dissolution”.

He added: “Of course, any government would have to respect the settled will of an overwhelming majority in Scotland to govern themselves.

“But those terms have to be defined. I would suggest 75 per cent of seats in the Scottish Parliament in favour of independence, over a 10-year period, legally binding. Without that, a referendum should simply be impossible.”

But Ms Sturgeon has hit out at the analysis, warning that the Conservatives are threatening to reverse Scottish devolution.

Writing on Twitter, the First Minister said: “Make no mistake, the Tories are coming for devolution.

“If we don’t decide to entrench the Scottish Parliament through independence, its powers will be eroded – forced, according to this by one of the architects of the Brexit disaster, to ‘evolve back’.”

But Tory MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston labelled Ms Sturgeon’s reaction “utter nonsense”.

He added: “The SNP has always opposed devolution and worked against it. But devolution isn’t responsible for the growing crisis in Scotland’s NHS, or councils under severe financial pressure or Scotland’s transport nightmare.

“Sturgeon and her failing SNP ministers are.”

But the SNP has issued a challenge to Tory leadership contender Liz Truss to disavow comments made by her prominent supporter and leading Brexiteer Lord Frost and rule out his return to government.

Lord Frost has been tipped to become Foreign Secretary under Ms Truss.

The SNP’s shadow secretary of state for Scotland, Mhairi Black, said: “Lord Frost’s comments are a disgrace and fly completely in the face of the longstanding position unionists have supposedly held that Scotland is an ‘equal partner’ within the UK – a promise continually made before the 2014 referendum by the anti-independence campaign.

"His comments not only fly in the face of a decades long held position but, like Brexit, disrespect the vote in 2014.
 
“Frost’s comments expose the ugly reality beneath Tory rhetoric around Scotland being a valued partner and show that under Truss there will be a concerted plot to dismantle the devolution settlement the Scottish people voted for overwhelmingly 25 years ago.
 
“That move will be resisted at every turn by the SNP and increasingly by civic Scotland and the people of this nation."
 
She added: “If Truss has even a shred of respect for the devolution settlement and Scotland’s democratically elected government she would disavow Lord Frost’s comments immediately and completely rule out his return to government, in any capacity.
  
“The people of Scotland voted for an independence referendum when they elected another SNP Government, and pro-independence majority parliament, in 2021.

"It isn’t for any unaccountable, unelected Lord or Thatcher-wannabe Tory leadership contender to say when or if that referendum should happen.
 
“It is clearer by the day that a Truss premiership would see a wholesale assault on devolution and a constant moving of the goalposts for Scots’ rights to seek self-determination and an escape from Westminster.
 
“With each passing day Scotland would be made more a hostage than an ‘equal partner’.
 
“Frost’s comment lay bare the dangers for Scotland and make it crystal clear that only independence can protect the democratic powers of our national Parliament.”