THE UK Government’s power grab bill will lead to “the democratic choices of the people of Scotland” being “undermined and overridden”, the Scottish Government will warn today.

Ministers in London claim Scotland is on course for extra responsibilities when Britain crashes out of the EU next year.

But as this could lead to different regulatory regimes in the UK the Tory Government has drawn up a trade bill to underpin the internal market.

At the heart of that is a “mutual recognition” mechanism. This would see regulations in one part of the UK recognised in all the other nations.

There’s a fear that could ultimately lead to lower standards in food safety and environmental protections being imposed on Scotland.

Holyrood is to debate those proposals this afternoon.

The Scottish Government’s Europe Minister, Jenny Gilruth, said: “The implications of this are clear and profoundly worrying and will be disastrous for devolution.

“This Parliament’s wishes and the democratic choices of the people of Scotland will be undermined and overridden.”

She added: “The UK Government wants to introduce a system where standards set by Westminster have also to be accepted in Scotland in devolved policy areas, regardless of the wishes of the people of Scotland, or the votes passed in this Parliament.

“The White Paper includes no mechanism for negotiation or agreement between the four governments of the UK. In reality, this means that the UK Government could impose decisions on the devolved governments with no right of repeal or means of redress.

“It will also be bad for consumers. They will open the door to lower food standards and an end to the precautionary principle that has served Scotland so well.

“The Scottish Government has been working on frameworks with the UK Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive and is committed to common standards where they are needed and make sense, with standards agreed rather than imposed by the UK Government.”

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In Holyrood, it’s likely Labour, Greens and the LibDems will support the Government’s motion.

Only the Scottish Tories are set to oppose. They say the legislation will “safeguard the integrity of the UK internal market, while also safeguarding the powers of devolved administrations to pursue competent policy divergence”.

The Greens will try to amend the motion, to say that the legislation is a “clear breach” of the Scotland Act. The party’s co-convenor, Patrick

Harvie said it was no surprise that the opposition to the legislation was ever growing.

He pointed to the interventions of Scottish Environment Link who say the internal market could “seriously harm” environmental standards.

Public health campaigning groups including Alcohol Focus Scotland and Obesity Action Scotland have also expressed concern that corporate interests could be prioritised over public health.

Harvie said: “I’m not surprised the voices of alarm are growing about these damaging and undemocratic proposals. This is not just a power grab, it’s an attack on the very notion of devolution itself.

“Putting the market before democracy is very dangerous indeed. It threatens our environmental, food and farming standards. It threatens Scotland’s decisions to ban fracking or prevent new nuclear power stations.

“It could be applied to our bold public health measures such as minimum unit pricing, and it certainly could allow further private sector

involvement in our NHS.

“The UK Government must withdraw any plans to hold a veto over the Scottish Parliament immediately. Alok Sharma will have seen from his inbox this is unwarranted and

unwanted.”

The UK Government insists the proposed internal market “will ensure the free flow of goods and services across every part of the UK, while upholding the devolution settlement”.

A spokeswoman added: “This will give the devolved administrations power over more issues than they have ever had before, without removing any of their current powers.”