EVERY conceivable aspect of agriculture and fisheries in Scotland should be run from Edinburgh after Brexit, and not a single power shared with London, the Scottish Government has said.
Nicola Sturgeon’s official spokesman said it was the government’s position that any sharing of responsibility would be “sub-optimal”, despite some farming and fishing leaders arguing to keep a UK single market and sharing some powers to maximise returns.
Under the 1998 Scotland Act underpinning devolution, agriculture and fisheries are not explicitly reserved to Westminster, and so are devolved to Holyrood by default.
However Brexit will see large swathes of powers in these areas repatriated from Brussels to the UK, and the Scottish and UK governments are now fighting over their redistribution.
Nicola Sturgeon this week said Tory MPs saw Brexit as a chance to “rein in” Holyrood, by denying it powers which ought to be repatriated to Edinburgh.
For Westminster to take control over areas currently devolved would be an attack “on the very foundations” of devolution, she said.
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has said the First Minister is making “the wrong argument at the wrong time” and called on the Scottish and UK governments to work together to make the most of Brexit’s “sea of opportunity”.
At First Minister’s Questions, an SNP MSP raised an interview in The Times in which Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson called for a “conversation” about where power should lie.
Ms Davidson said it might be best for the Treasury to fund agricultural subsidies, rather have them done on a regional basis, and said the issue required a “mature” debate.
Highlands MSP Maree Todd said the report pointed to "not just a Westminster power grab on devolved matters, such as farming and fisheries, but a cash grab too".
Ms Sturgeon said Ms Davidson “seems to suggest that in areas where Westminster currently has no power over Scotland at all, for example agriculture, they intend to use Brexit to seize such power - clear undermining of the devolution settlement, if ever there was such a thing.
"On money, instead of Scotland getting its fair share of any savings that Westminster makes by no longer having to pay EU contributions, Ruth Davidson's suggestion seems to be that the Treasury should keep all of that money and the Scottish Government should be left to raise taxes in order to fund farm payments. That is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable.
"I tell you what's clear - Westminster has got no intentions of giving new powers to this Parliament. All they want to do is muscle-in on the powers we already have."
Scottish Secretary David Mundell has given an "absolute guarantee" that Holyrood will get more control over Scottish affairs after Brexit.
Asked later if the Scottish Government believed all aspects of agriculture and fishing should be run from Edinburgh, and none shared with London, Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman said: “Yes.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel