Article 50 Withdrawal Process

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 9 January 2018.

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Photo of Adam Tomkins Adam Tomkins Conservative

I am going to come to the European Court of Justice in a few moments, because I want to respond to a number of remarks that were made by Mairi Gougeon in what I thought was a really important contribution to this afternoon’s debate, although Donald Cameron stole some of my thunder, which is why I rudely intervened on him.

We have also, I think, seen a much more constructive approach between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government in the last three or four months than we did in the first half of 2017. For my part, I warmly welcome that.

In a few days’ time, we will debate formally in this Parliament the Finance and Constitution Committee report that was published today on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. I am the deputy convener of that committee, so in that debate I will have to play a role as deputy convener. Let me take that hat off for a moment and just speak as a Scottish Conservative member of this Parliament about the withdrawal bill.

I am deeply frustrated and disappointed that the United Kingdom Government has not yet brought forward the amendments that it knows it needs to make, particularly—but not only—to clause 11 of the withdrawal bill, in order to obtain this Parliament’s consent. It is imperative that the legislation is passed by Westminster in order to secure a smooth Brexit and it is imperative that the legislation is passed by Westminster with this Parliament’s consent.

Both the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government want that and it does not have to be difficult. We have been talking, publicly and privately, about a series of solutions to the clause 11 problems for months. A solution around common frameworks and respect for the devolution settlement is on the table and it is not beyond the wit of either Government to ensure that thathatlution is accelerated and brought forward sooner rather than later. We had hoped and, indeed, been led to expect that the problem would have been fixed by report stage in the House of Commons. It is frustrating that it is being kicked into the House of Lords.

However, I remain optimistic—I said that I was going to start out positive and I am still going to be positive. I remain optimistic that a solution to the problem will be found and, indeed, I think that—to all intents and purposes—the solution has already been found. I certainly pledge myself and, on behalf of everybody on the Scottish Conservative benches, I pledge my party to continue to work with the Scottish Government, Scottish Government ministers and the United Kingdom Government to ensure that we get that solution sooner rather than later.

I want to turn to some of the points that have been made during the debate, particularly those that Mairi Gougeon made in her really interesting and, in some respects, excellent speech about the European Court of Justice. The ECJ will continue to play a role in UK law in all the jurisdictions of the UK after Brexit in the manner that Donald Cameron described, but the ECJ is also part of the problem—it is partly why so many people in the UK voted to leave the EU.

For 50 years, the European Court of Justice has not enforced the rule of European law; it has enforced what it wants European law to become. I was a remainer—I still am; I voted to remain in the EU and, if I could vote again, I would still vote to remain in the EU, but I would vote to do so despite and not because of the ECJ.