Minister warns of crisis if Holyrood withholding of repeal bill consent ignored

Scotland faces a constitutional crisis if Westminster ignores the Scottish Parliament withholding consent for the Repeal Bill, the Scottish Brexit Minister has said.

Michael Russell said he believed MPs plan to use so-called Henry VIII powers to decide what is devolved and what is not, which Scotland Office Minister Ian Duncan denied.

The Bill is designed to transpose EU law into British law so the same rules apply on the day of Brexit as the day before, while giving parliaments and assemblies in Westminster, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff the power to drop or change them in the future.

It includes provision to use of so-called Henry VIII powers to pass up to 1,000 pieces of secondary legislation without close parliamentary scrutiny.

The first ministers of Scotland and Wales, Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones, described it as a “naked power grab'' because it does not immediately return EU powers to devolved administrations and said they would not grant legislative consent from the Bill as it stands.

However, Scottish Secretary David Mundell said the legislation would result in a powers “bonanza'' for Holyrood.

Mr Russell urged all MSPs to support the Scottish Government's call for protection for devolved powers to be written into the Bill.

He told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland if the Scottish Parliament does not grant consent for the law but is ignored by Westminster, this would spark a “constitutional crisis''.

“Essentially, it means that we have a situation that Scotland has said and its parliament has said one thing, the UK Parliament has simply overruled it.''

He added: “I think you want to avoid that in every possible way. You can't simply blunder into this crisis, it is the wrong thing to do.

“There will be outcomes if that happens which will be very serious because there will be areas that are inoperable.''

Questioned if he was concerned the Henry VIII powers will be used to decide what is and is not devolved, Mr Russell replied: “Of course, and that's what they are intended to do.''

Mr Duncan told the programme a Scottish Parliament vote against granting consent for the Repeal Bill would cause significant difficulties and if the Scottish Government engaged in brinkmanship it would put people in jeopardy.

He said: “The First Minister will have to explain to them exactly what's she's going to do instead of that. It's not good enough simply to posture.

“You need to be able to say to people who are going to be affected on the day after Brexit that they will be able to go forward and continue to do business as they do now.''

He added: “I think right now we would have significant difficulties in the body politic in Scotland if there's no certainty of what laws will apply to Scotland after a particular Brexit moment... I suspect at that point there would be serious implications.'