Limit Scottish MPs’ powers, say Tories
The power of Scottish MPs to vote on English matters should be curtailed, the Conservatives’ democracy taskforce has said.
While the party is under no obligation to accept its recommendations, David Cameron is widely expected to adopt the vast majority of them.
Speaking on the Today programme, Kenneth Clarke, former chancellor and author of the report, said action needed to be taken on the powers of English and Scottish MPs before the English public became resentful.
“I think most British people want the Westminster parliament,” he said.
“But when the Westminster parliament is dealing with purely English things, it shouldn’t find the English have things imposed on them by members of parliament who are elected to represent other parts of the country that are unaffected.
“It’s no good waiting until the English get resentful.”
Responding to concerns that changes to the system would create two classes of MPs, the report only bans Scottish MPs from contributing to the committee stage of bills, where legislation is discussed in most detail and most amendments are voted on.
They would still have a say on second and third readings. In the second reading, the principles of legislation are broadly specified and debated, while in the third the whole bill either passes or fails.
The same rules would then apply to Northern Ireland and Welsh MPs if they ever gain similar powers to the Scottish executive.
Scotland currently has power over its own health and education issues but Scottish MPs can vote on similar issues in England through votes in Westminster.
It’s called the West Lothian question, and the debate over it has become noticeably passionate over the last few years.
Any attempts to change the system usually leads to concerns about putting the Union in jeopardy, but others believe growing English resentment is more of a threat to the future of the UK as a unified entity.
The Scottish National Party’s (SNP) Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, said: “SNP MPs already refrain from voting on exclusively English, Welsh and Northern Irish matters.
“There is more than a whiff of irony about the Ken Clarke’s proposals, given it was the last Conservative government, and English MPs, that imposed the iniquitous Poll Tax on Scotland.”
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson on constitutional issues, David Howarth, described the Tory proposals as a “feeble non-solution”.
“Ken Clarke’s proposals do not provide a solution to the problem and perhaps are not meant to,” he commented.
