EU Withdrawal Debate and Tory Power Grab

Most people will by now have picked up that the evening debate on the 12th June on the EU Withdrawal Bill was a democratic outrage. The debate on the devolution aspects of the debate was restricted to only 15 minutes! All of which were taken up by the Tory Government Minister, with not one SNP MP allowed to speak at that juncture.

This Tory Government power-grab was approved following a 15 minute debate, ignoring the voice of Scotland’s Parliament which withheld consent.

I myself tried to raise two points of order about the Government’s approach to the proceedings as you will see from the video. The Tories just don’t get it! and Labour once again failed to defend the interests of devolution.

The lack of respect for the Scottish Parliament and Devolution was then further disregarded when, during PMQ's on Wednesday 13th June, Ian Blackford called on the Prime Minister to bring forward emergency legislation to remove the power grab against the Scottish Parliament. The Prime Minister refused to address the concerns of the SNP, which led to the SNP walkout.

Using Standing Order 163 – which enables any MP to move “That the House sit in private” – the SNP used the Parliamentary procedure to stop the Withdrawal Bill proceeding without proper debate on devolution matters.

Over the last two days, Devolution has been treated with contempt by the UK government.

The UK Government must now bring forward emergency legislation to remove the Clause 11 power grab element of the EU Withdrawal Bill.

SNP MPs have been clear - Scotland’s voice must and will be heard.