LABOUR peer George Foulkes’s repeated plea for the Scottish Government to be forbidden from spending money on a future referendum has been rejected by the Conservatives in the House of Lords.
Foulkes was calling on the UK Government to monitor the Scottish Government’s spending on reserved areas such as holding a second independence referendum.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Foulkes asked the UK Government whether “devolution means that devolved authorities should be spending money only on the devolved areas and that any spending on reserved areas would be improper?”
He continued by asking the UK Government to “monitor the devolved authorities to ensure that they are not spending money on reserved areas, like the Scottish Government who are spending money on the constitution.
“[They are spending] £20 million, including employing civil servants to prepare for a referendum and breaking up the United Kingdom.
“Shouldn’t this be on the agenda for the next meeting between the Prime Minister and the First Minister?”
However Lord Stephen Greenhalgh, the Minister of State at the Department for Levelling Up, replied that although he agreed with Foulkes’s sentiment he would not be escalating this further.
He said: “It is clearly an important issue to maintain the Union but the devolution settlement set out the responsibilities that fall within devolved and reserved competence.
“Scottish ministers are accountable to their own legislature and electorate for their actions, including for their expenditure decisions”
%image('5668186', type="article-full", alt="SNP MP Mhairi Black said spending on reserved areas allows the Scottish Government to mitigate policies like the bedroom tax")
SNP MP Mhairi Black (above) is calling on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to confirm whether or not he agrees with his Labour colleague.
She said: "This exposes Labour’s real attitude to Scotland – they want to clip Holyrood’s wings rather than give Scotland new powers, and Anas Sarwar should make clear whether he agrees with Lord Foulkes.
“An unelected Labour peer is telling a Tory Prime Minister, who Scotland has rejected time and again, to curb the democratically elected Scottish Government's power and funds."
She went on: "It is these funds that are mitigatigating cruel Westminster policies like the bedroom tax, which is protecting over 70,000 households in Scotland.
"This makes clear what Labour's priorities are, and Scotland's voice is not one of them."
Last week it was announced that the Finance Secretary would be putting aside £20 million for a second independence vote, honoring an SNP manifesto pledge to hold indyref2 within the current parliament.
Lord Foulkes has repeatedly asked the UK Government to block the Scottish Government from spending money on reserved areas, including on overseas offices which attract business to Scotland.
