One of Scotland’s most experienced Liberal Democrat politicians has offered to intervene on the SNP’s behalf in the row over the UK government’s Brexit bill.
Lord Steel of Aikwood, a former Holyrood presiding officer, said he would take the SNP’s arguments into the House of Lords because the nationalists have no representatives in the upper house.
The former leader of the Liberal Party promised to intervene to help the SNP force the UK government into changing the EU Withdrawal Bill.
The bill, which will incorporate EU rules and regulations into British law after Brexit, has caused a fractious row between the administrations in Holyrood and Westminster.
The Scottish government has demanded changes to make sure that powers over devolved areas are transferred to Holyrood after Brexit.
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The UK government promised to table amendments to change the bill to reflect the Scottish government’s concerns but failed to bring these forward while the bill was in the Commons.
UK ministers promised to bring the amendments forward in the Lords instead, a move which has angered the SNP which has no members of the upper house.
Lord Steel said he sympathised with the Scottish government’s approach. “I have been in touch with their Brexit minister, Michael Russell, to say that I shall put forward the complaint about the bill currently dragging EU powers back to Westminster rather than Edinburgh,” he said “It is especially irritating that the bill at present does not recognise the separate nature of Scots law, nor the fact that agriculture is wholly devolved to Scotland.”
Another Scottish member of the House of Lords, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, dismissed SNP claims that the Brexit legislation was a “power grab”.
The former Conservative Scottish secretary suggested there was agreement in principle between the Scottish and UK governments on amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill which nationalists were refusing to sign off to boost the case for independence.
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“My understanding is that a deal’s been done and we just have a lot of posturing going on,” he said.