David Cameron says Tories plan to give Scots more power

Published on Sunday 14 February 2010 16:09

Conservative leader David Cameron today said he plans to give the Scottish Parliament more powers during the first term of a Tory government.

Mr Cameron said he wanted to look at devolving further tax powers to Holyrood and said greater financial accountability for the parliament "should be part of the future".

In an interview broadcast today, he spoke of his intention to produce a White Paper on devolution before the next Scottish Parliament elections.

Mr Cameron told the BBC's Politics Show Scotland he believed the report by Sir Kenneth Calman, which reviewed Scottish devolution, was a "very good piece of work".

He told the programme: "We've said in terms of the respect agenda, in terms of how the parliaments work together, we accept what he said.

"We said in terms of the devolution settlement, about which powers are operated where, we accept what he says."

And he added: "We do believe that greater financial accountability for the Scottish Parliament should be part of the future."

Asked if he would legislate on the powers of the Scottish Parliament in his first term as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron said: "What we've said is that we would produce a White Paper before the Holyrood elections.

"That would be our plans for making the devolution settlement work better and then our plan would be to put that into effect."

Mr Cameron stopped short of giving an absolute guarantee, saying: "All I know is that we are shooting for a majority, we have our plans for the Scottish Parliament and devolution and how to make it work and we'll try and put those in place."

He said his party wants to make devolution work and he said he does not want to have a "perpetual argument" about independence.

He told the show: "I don't think people in Scotland want independence, so let's make devolution work in a way that actually kills off the independence argument and makes this family, which the United Kingdom is, a happier family."

Mr Cameron also said he would not deliver a cut to the total number of MSPs at Holyrood.

"We are not going to unilaterally impose on the Scottish Parliament a cut," he said.