Should Scottish MPs be given the power to vote down English laws?

Scottish MPs would be able to vote down English legislation under plans being considered by Downing Street in a push to bolster the relationship between England and Scotland.

According to The Times, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove – who chairs the government’s Union Policy and Implementation Committee – has presented fellow ministers with “proposals to abolish English Votes for English Laws (Evel)”.

Introduced after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the Commons procedure requires that “bills, amendments and clauses of legislation affecting England alone be approved by a majority of English MPs”, says the paper. So abolishing Evel would hand Scottish MPs the right to vote on English legislation on policies devolved to their own parliaments.

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Two-tier system

Evel was introduced under David Cameron in October 2015 and was supposed to put to bed a long-running political debate known as the West Lothian question – a dispute over whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales should be allowed to vote on legislation impacting England only.

The West Lothian question was named after the constituency of Scottish Labour MP Tam Dalyell, who during a 1977 debate asked “how long” English MPs would “tolerate” the 119 MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland “exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?”

Use of the Evel mechanism has been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to streamline parliamentary procedure, but scrapping it entirely would be “an implicit admission that Cameron’s government undermined the union by introducing it in 2015”, The Times says.

Under Gove’s plans, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs would be granted the power to vote on legislation relating to areas that are devolved to their own parliaments, such as justice, education and the NHS. These votes are currently ring-fenced, with English MPs only taking part if the legislation is said not to impact on Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Presenting the suggestion to cabinet ministers last week, Gove reportedly described Evel as “a convention which arose out of a set of circumstances after the 2014 referendum, where you had a coalition government and so on”.

“We’ve moved on now, so I think it’s right to review where we are on it,” he continued. “My view is that the more we can make the House of Commons and Westminster institutions work for every part of the UK and every party in the UK, the better.”

The plan has “provoked a cabinet backlash” and is being “formally opposed” by Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, reports The Times, which adds that senior Tories are worried the reform “could undermine the legitimacy of any government elected without a majority of English seats”.

But the proposals are likely to please the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Conservatives, who have previously complained that the legislation creates a “two tiers” of MPs.

Extend the franchise?

Gove is pushing ahead with the reform proposals as SNP MP Tommy Sheppard celebrates winning a freedom of information (FOI) appeal that means Downing Street will be “ordered to release ‘secret’ polling on attitudes towards the union and Scottish independence”, The National reports.

The Cabinet Office had originally refused to release the polling data, “citing a get-out clause in the FOI law which allows them to keep hidden any information relating to the development of government policy”, the paper continues.

However, an information tribunal this week sided with Sheppard, saying the department’s arguments were “not wholly clear” and ordering the release of the sensitive polling information within 28 days.

The plan to extend the franchise to Scottish MPs also follows the publication of the initial proposals for England’s new constituency boundaries. The Boundary Commission for Scotland is due to publish a separate review, but the plans to ensure that each UK constituency has no less than 69,724 parliamentary electors and no more than 77,062 will see Scotland lose two seats.

Back when Cameron introduced the Evel legislation, SNP MP Pete Wishart argued that Scottish MPs were being turned into “second-class citizens”, adding: “Scotland is watching this and the mood is darkening. If this is an exercise in saving the union you could not have contrived of a more inept way to save the union.”

Last year, SNP MPs staged a protest in the House of Commons against Evel, holding up signs that said “speak no Evel”, “See no Evel” and “Hear no Evel” during a vote on on the NHS Funding Bill in which only MPs representing English constituencies could take part, as The Herald reported at the time.

The protesters included SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who said: “Is this indeed the first time that members from Scotland have had their votes discounted in this place? And what conclusion should we draw when an item such as this bill is going to have spending consequences for Scotland, yet Scottish MPs are locked out of this place?

“Can we not draw our own conclusion that this is indeed the English parliament and the answer to the people of Scotland is very clear. If you want your votes counted then we better become an independent parliament in Scotland.”

Scottish journalist Neal Ascherson has also argued that Scottish MPs should vote on English legislation because in reality “English laws” are “almost impossible to identify”. In an article in Prospect Magazine in 2015, he wrote that “almost all legislation involving public expenditure affects Scotland” and that “if English MPs continue to feel that Scottish MPs are not entitled to full ‘British’ rights, then the answer is either a federal UK (impossible) or Scottish independence (the soundest solution)”.

However, in a retort to Ascherson, then-Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie argued that Evel was “a simple matter of fairness”, adding that “I strongly support the concept of devolution, but it has its consequences.”

“SNP MPs understandably want to ensure that the new government delivers on ‘the vow’ of extra powers” being devolved to Holyrood, she said. “But I do not see how they can, in good faith, still expect to be able to vote on those same powers when they apply to England.”