Hansard

The member is absolutely right. Indeed, the leave campaign was disingenuous on many points, including on the repatriation of powers. I will come to that.

On June 28, this Parliament voted by a margin of 92 to zero to welcome the overwhelming remain verdict in the referendum and mandated the Scottish Government to explore options for protecting Scotland’s relationship with the EU. Even the leader of the Tories waxed eloquent about the need to do so and how important the single market was to us. Therefore, ever since last June the Scottish Government has been clear that recognition of the democratic outcome in Scotland must be part of the process of the UK exiting the EU. That was not a surprise then; it should not be a surprise now. It has been obvious that the Scottish Government, with the explicit support of this Parliament, has been pursuing the objective of preserving Scotland’s relationship with Europe by rational, constructive and reasonable means.

In July, the First Minister identified our objectives in that work: the economy, solidarity, social protection, domestic interests and a wider ability to influence the laws and the politics that affect us. With those objectives in mind, she set up a standing council on Europe to give expert advice. We have engaged with a range of stakeholders and institutions in Scotland and the UK and across Europe. Ministers have engaged with representatives of every country of the EU. We have worked tirelessly to develop alternative approaches that would recognise the democratic outcomes in Scotland and across the UK and meet the objectives that the First Minister set out.

As a result, we published, in December, that rational, constructive and reasonable compromise plan. It is a plan to keep the UK as a whole in the single market and, if that is not possible, for Scotland to retain its place. The proposals envisage a major increase in devolved powers. The ideas were well received as important and serious. Our paper makes practical proposals—complex, yes, but what is not complex at the moment? The proposals accommodate the various objectives.

On 17 June, this Parliament, by a majority of 86 to 36, welcomed the options set out in the paper and agreed that we should seek to keep Scotland in the single market. What has been the UK Government’s reaction? So far, we have had no sign of serious engagement with our proposals, no recognition of the referendum outcome in Scotland, and not even a recognition of the votes taken in this national Parliament.

On the same day as our debate took place, and just two days before we presented our proposals formally to the joint ministerial committee in London, the Prime Minister stood up at Lancaster House and, without any prior discussion or notification, set out the UK Government’s objectives for negotiations with the European Union. On the central issue of membership of, not access to, the single market, she announced that she had unilaterally decided that the UK must leave the largest integrated market on the planet, which has been carefully constructed over many years—apparently, not to do so would not constitute leaving the EU at all, which will have come as something of a surprise to a number of countries in the European Economic Area.

There was no acknowledgement from the Prime Minister of the possibility of a differentiated solution for Scotland. Instead, there was a threat, which was repeated in the UK Government’s white paper last week, to walk away without any deal, dragging us on her coat tails, regardless of the disastrous consequences of such an approach for us and for the whole of the UK.

The attitude of the UK Government needs to change, and we have said so directly to the UK Government. Three days before the white paper was published, the Prime Minister agreed with the First Minister and the First Ministers of the other devolved Administrations that work to find a common UK position on triggering article 50 needed to be intensified.

That process is meant to commence tomorrow, at the JMC in London, although, as ever, we have had great difficulty in discovering what the UK Government wants to table and what the agenda will be. This morning, therefore, I wrote to David Davis, my opposite number, asking him to ensure that the agenda has, at its very top, consideration of the so-called article 50 letter—that is the formal document that will be sent to the EU to notify that the UK intends to leave and to commence negotiations. In particular, the agenda must address the way in which that letter will make mention of the devolved Administrations and their requirements, including differentiation. I also made clear that arrangements must be made to complete work on those issues before the article 50 letter is signed off by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister has indicated that she intends to send that letter before the end of March. Some people have speculated that it might be sent as early as the second week of March. Incredible as it must seem to most people in Scotland, the Scottish Government does not know the proposed date of submission, has never seen a paper about the letter’s contents—let alone an early draft—and has not been given any information about how the UK Government intends to seek our involvement in its production and finalisation. The promise of a UK agreement on the letter’s contents therefore looks as if it might have been an empty one. However, we will go on asking the UK Government to honour it, right up to the last moment.

The Scottish Government needs to see clear evidence from the UK Government that it is taking seriously the views of people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—and, of course, the diversity of opinion in England. Some things are vital if we are to protect Scotland’s position at this time. We must be able to find a way to preserve the free movement of people; we must have the powers to comply with European Free Trade Association-EEA rules, which means that we must increase devolved competences; and we must have guaranteed to us the further devolution of those matters that lie within devolved competence but which are presently decided on in Brussels.

Ruth Davidson might be preparing, as she indicated yesterday to the National Farmers Union Scotland, to sell the pass on Tory promises, including on automatic transfer of powers from Brussels to this Parliament. She might have swallowed the false rhetoric of some mythical UK single market that needs to be prepared, whereas what is being talked about is a rigid and rigged unitary market, controlled from London. That will not deflect us, no matter the noise that the Scottish Tories make as they defend the indefensible.

The Scottish Parliament—of whatever hue—has always been willing to share and to work with London, Cardiff and Belfast. [Laughter.] The only people who laugh are the Tories, who do not wish to share with anyone. However, we do so in devolved competencies on the basis of powers exercised close to the people and informed by them. The attitude of Theresa May is now one that reverses that basic tenet of devolution. It will therefore not be allowed to prevail.

Accordingly, as there is no evidence of progress on any of the compromises we have sought, and indeed as there is growing evidence of an actual attempt to reserve more and more powers to the UK Government while ignoring this Parliament, this Government and the votes of the people of Scotland, we can do no other than recommend that the Parliament does not give approval to the triggering of article 50. The Westminster bill in fact gives the Prime Minister unprecedented and untrammelled power in those matters. No Prime Minister should be given that.

The clock is ticking as the time to trigger article 50 approaches. There is still time for the UK Government to recognise democracy in these islands, the existence and importance of the devolved settlement, the actual votes of this Parliament and the clear voice of the people of this country, but that time is running out. Consequently, voting today to reject the triggering of article 50 is a good way—in fact, it is now the only way—to remind the Prime Minister of that fact, of her promises, and of the disastrous consequences of the path that she seems determined to tread. Therefore, I commend my motion to the chamber.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees with all but one of Scotland’s MPs that the UK Government’s European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill should not proceed, as the UK Government has set out no provision for effective consultation with the devolved administrations on reaching an agreed UK approach to the negotiations on implementing Article 50, has refused to give a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK, has left unanswered a range of detailed questions covering many policy areas regarding the full implications of withdrawal from the single market, and has provided no assurance that a future parliamentary vote on the outcome of the negotiations will be anything other than irrelevant, as withdrawal from the EU follows two years after the invoking of Article 50 if agreement is not reached in the forthcoming negotiations, unless they are prolonged by unanimity.