A TORY minister conceded that the UK’s Internal Market Bill will take power from Scotland after the legislation passed at third reading last night.
Despite threats of a backbench Conservative rebellion, no Tory voted against the bill.
MPs voted 340 to 256 in favour of the legislation, ignoring warnings that the “law-breaking” bill threatens the Union and the UK’s global reputation.
The bill contains powers which would enable the UK Government to breach international law by overriding the Withdrawal Agreement brokered with Brussels last year.
All Holyrood parties besides the Tories voted to reject the legislation – with the SNP branding it an attack on devolution. If passed the UK Government would be able to stray into matters which are devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
READ MORE: SNP hit out at Brexit power grab bill as it clears the Commons
“The bill will not only rob the devolved governments of powers over devolved matters and hoard them in Westminster, it will also signal a race to the bottom in food and environmental standards,” Ian Blackford said following last night’s vote.
However Conservatives have consistently said the bill will gift new powers to the Scottish Parliament, rather than take them away.
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland today, Small Business Minister Paul Scully appeared to contradict the Tory messaging about the bill by conceding some powers would move from Holyrood to Westminster.
The Tory minister told Gary Robertson: “What I’m saying is money that’s currently spent by Brussels is coming back to the UK, to be distributed and spent alongside the Scottish Parliament, but by a Parliament in which Scottish MPs from across the political spectrum are represented.
“But money that previously would have been distributed by the Scottish Government from Brussels will now be distributed by the UK Government from Westminster?” the presenter asked.
Scully replied: “This is all dealt with on the Scottish and UK priorities, not Brussels’ priorities – this is no,” before the presenter cut him off. Robertson asked how Scottish priorities would be taken into account “when the Scottish Government is no longer part of that decision”.
Scully suggested the loss of power would be okay because Holyrood would still be able to fund certain devolved areas.
“The Scottish Government will continue to be able to spend money on health, on education … what we’re looking at is being able to enhance and complement that in terms of infrastructure, in terms of educational settings, on our shared priorities,” said Scully.
“This is, we’re building things ideally on common frameworks. There is already three common frameworks including food standards that are going to be approved by Christmas. So there’s lots of work being done. What we need to do is make sure we take the rhetoric out of it …
READ MORE: SNP infighting the biggest threat to party in face of weak opposition
“We’ve seen how we can collaborate through the Covid crisis in terms of the shared way that we’re working on testing, the shared way we’re working on the furlough scheme, all these kinds of things can work really together as one UK.”
Robertson asked why, “in that spirit”, can the Scottish Government not decide how the cash is spent.
Scully blamed the Scottish Government for the bill’s necessity. “The reason that we’re legislating in the first place as I say is because the Scottish Government walked away from some of the common frameworks discussions we were having last year,” he told listeners.
“And if we can get them together and work together we can have more collaboration, more consensus on this which is obviously good for Scottish business, it’s good for Scottish people. What’s the biggest threat of the devolution settlement in all of this? The repeated calls for independence. Which reduce it to that certainty for Scottish businesses and the Scottish people.”
Last night in the Commons SNP MPs stressed that independence is the only option left for Scotland following the power grab.
Mhairi Black told the Chamber: “This is a union that England dominates. The only reason there isn’t an English Parliament is because the people in Westminster view this place as the English Parliament, and we can’t afford to be naive. The only way to protect our Parliament is to become independent.”
She added: “It took us 300 years to get our Scottish Parliament and 20 years for this place to put a bulldozer right through it.”
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