LABOUR SITS ON HANDS AS WESTMINSTER SETS EYES ON HOLYROOD POWERS
AMENDMENT TO PROTECT DEVOLUTION FALLS IN COMMONS AS LABOUR ABSTAIN The SNP has slammed Labour MPs for their failure to take action, as Westminster prepares to ride roughshod over the devolution settlement. In the House of Commons last night, Labour MPs chose to abstain on an SNP amendment which would have stopped Boris Johnson’s Brexit Bill in its tracks - due to the Scottish Parliament’s refusal to grant consent to parts of the Bill that encroach on devolved competencies. Yesterday, an overwhelming number of MSPs in Holyrood voted overwhelmingly to refuse to grant consent to Boris Johnson’s Bill. North Ayrshire & Arran SNP MP, Patricia Gibson said: “Labour’s disgraceful inaction to preserve the hard-fought devolution settlement has proven that Labour cannot be trusted to stand up for Scotland. Their lack of action will not be forgotten. “The SNP won 80% of the seats in Scotland at the General Election on a manifesto commitment to oppose the Brexit chaos of Westminster. People in Scotland did not vote for Brexit and the SNP will always stand up to protect Scotland’s place as a European nation. “Thanks to the woeful abstention of Labour MPs, Scotland now faces a Tory Brexit being forced on us against our will. With Scotland’s Parliament silenced at the whims of a Tory Prime Minister that Scotland did not vote for, the case for an independent Scotland in Europe could not be more convincing.”
SNP Reasoned Amendment - Thurs 9th Jan “this House declines to give a third reading to the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill because the Scottish Parliament has not consented to those parts of this Bill which encroach on devolved competencies, and because it fails to take into account the fact that the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union; and further believes that this bill is not fit for purpose as it continues to undermine the fundamental principles of the Scotland Act 1998 by reserving to the UK Parliament powers that would otherwise be devolved to the Scottish Parliament upon the UK leaving the European Union.
