THE First Ministers of Wales and Scotland have met and discussed the "urgent" need for the UK Government to end repeated breaches of the Sewel Convention.
At the meeting in Edinburgh today, the First Ministers, Mark Drakeford and Humza Yousaf, also urged the UK Government to consistently respect devolution and live up to the principles of mutual respect, trust, effective communication and accountability, as set out in the Inter-Governmental Relations Review.
They also discussed the need to engage in good faith in Common Frameworks, designed to manage different policy approaches across the UK following EU exit.
The First Ministers agreed they will continue to work closely to protect devolution.
The Sewel Convention says that the Westminster government will “not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly or the Northern Ireland Assembly.”.
Drakeford is in Scotland to speak at an event with former Labour leader will Gordon Brown, arguing for constitutional change in both Scotland the UK at an event in Edinburgh on June 1.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham will also speak at the event, as will Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and actress, comedian and writer Arabella Weir.
Brown has come under fire for promises made to Scots ahead of the 2014 referendum, with the Scottish Government’s independence minister insisting these commitments were “not kept”.
Independence minister Jamie Hepburn hit out saying he should apologise to people as “jobs have been lost and living standards have been harmed” as a result.
Ahead of the historic vote in September 2014, Brown was instrumental in drawing up what became known as the Vow – a commitment that Scotland would have federal-like powers if people rejected independence and instead opted to stay in the UK.
However, Hepburn said the former prime minister had “made promises that would have made even snake-oil salesmen blush”.
He said Brown “could not have been clearer that if people in Scotland voted against independence, in his own words, that ‘we’re going to be, within a year or two, as close to a federal state as you can be’.”
The SNP MSP said since the independence vote in 2014, Scotland has been “dragged out of the EU against our will” and has seen the powers of the Scottish Parliament come “under attack like never before”.
Hepburn said: “The Sewel Convention which was supposed to prevent Westminster over-riding the Scottish Parliament is now routinely being breached.
“Laws passed in explicitly devolved areas are struck down at the stroke of the Scottish Secretary’s pen. And the Foreign Secretary is sending out threatening letters to overseas embassies trying to restrict Scottish ministers’ efforts to secure jobs and investment for Scotland.
“In contrast to what Gordon Brown promised, the reality is that we are about as far from a federal state as you can get – and nothing that pro-Brexit Labour are proposing in their anaemic devolution proposals will make any difference.
“Jobs have been lost and living standards have been harmed because promises that Gordon Brown made were not kept, and before he takes to the stage he needs to apologise.”
