Meeting of the Parliament 21 March 2018
It is always depressing to follow Boris Johnson, Presiding Officer.
This bill has gone through Parliament at breakneck speed. From the outset, if we are honest, many of us have not been comfortable with how it has been handled and rushed. We do not think, despite the minister’s claims to the contrary, that the bill has had the scrutiny that it deserves from members or, indeed, the wider community, who will be affected by it.
However, we are where we are. While expressing those concerns and the caveats that we have raised from the outset of the process, we will give cautious support to the bill at decision time. I echo the minister’s words about the commitment given by the staff of the Parliament. They always go beyond the call of duty. I particularly single out Madeline Grieve of our Labour staff, who has done a power of work for us on this.
This was, and still is, an avoidable situation. If we cast our minds back to December, we were assured by David Mundell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, that the UK Government would make changes to its bill in the House of Commons in order to address concerns about the impact of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill on devolution. He said:
“We have been very, very clear. The committee stage of this Bill is about listening, it’s about adapting to issues that have been brought forward ... We have listened ... and we will bring amendments forward to clause 11”.
He also said:
“It’s going to be amended because Scottish Conservatives have come forward with practical amendments to the Bill.”
Adam Tomkins himself said that the bill needed to be amended to comply with the devolution settlement. The Finance and Constitution Committee of this Parliament unanimously called for the EUWB to be amended in the House of Commons to resolve those outstanding issues, but no amendment was tabled. On 16 January, the Labour Party tabled amendments in the House of Commons that would have protected the devolution settlement and established a dispute resolution procedure. However, every Scottish Tory MP traipsed through the lobbies and reneged on their commitments. It looks as though it is not only the Scottish fishermen who have been deceived by the Tory party.
Today, the issue still lies in the House of Lords, and while I am frustrated that it lies there, in the hands of the unelected, I am hopeful that we will see some common sense prevail, the devolution issues resolved and a dispute resolution process put in place, because we want this to work. We want devolution to work. We want everyone involved to make the retention of jobs and our trading relationships across Europe a top priority. We want to build prosperity that we can share more equally. We believe that a customs union with the EU allows us to do that, but, of course, we also see areas in which common frameworks should be developed with our neighbours on this island.
Yesterday, I and my UK Parliament colleague Keir Starmer met the Scotch Whisky Association. We agree with it that there are areas where cross-Europe and UK-wide framework agreements make business and regulatory sense. One example is labelling. The SWA has worked hard for years to ensure that consistent EU rules on production and labelling are in place and enforced. That has helped the sector to grow and succeed as a major exporter to many EU and global markets. It is in the interest of businesses, their employees, trade unions and communities and of the respective Governments to take common approaches that are developed in a respectful and collaborative manner. Let us end the frustrating stand-off and get on with it.
Throughout this process, Labour has sought to play a positive role. However, at times, we have had to drag information from the minister and the Government, and at other times, we have had to act to rein in the minister’s ambition to grab powers from this Parliament and take them into ministerial offices.
Members across the chamber have tried their level best to make this messy bill better but we should not easily forget that it is the Tories who have got us into this mess, and time is running out for them to get us out of it.
18:41