Tories want to make English jealous of Scots, says Straw

Published on Saturday 14 July 2007 11:50

UK Justice Minister Jack Straw has accused Tory MPs of trying to make English voters jealous of Scotland.

He ridiculed their call for "English votes for English laws", warning it would mean the House of Commons Speaker having to rule line by line on Bills whether Scots MPs should be allowed to vote.

Mr Straw, who is also the UK minister responsible for constitutional affairs, was speaking in Edinburgh after meeting First Minister Alex Salmond and touring the Scottish Parliament.

The talks with Mr Salmond included the question of whether Tony Blair's deal with Libya could lead to the transfer of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi, currently serving a life sentence in Scotland.

Mr Straw said any deal on such a transfer would have to involve the agreement of the Scottish Executive. He also stressed his desire for co-operation between Westminster and Holyrood.

He said: "We want a relationship that is constructive with the Scottish Executive, as we do with the other devolved administrations."

And Mr Straw turned his fire on Tory MPs for recent claims that Scotland was prospering at England's expense and their call for Scottish MPs to be banned from voting on English issues in the Commons.

He said: "Some rash members of the Conservative Party are trying to create anxiety among English voters that Scotland is somehow favoured and essentially create jealousy in England that Scotland does better and we should therefore exclude Scottish MPs from voting on so-called English matters. It is extraordinary that the Conservative Party, which used to be the one most wedded to the Union, should be doing this. The consequence of what some Conservatives are proposing is to break the Union."

He cited the experience of Irish home rule in 1893, when Irish MPs at Westminster were not allowed to vote on issues which were devolved to Ireland.

He said: "Two things happened. When they examined this in detail it fell apart in their hands, and secondly it gave the Irish the message - if they needed it - that they were to be treated as second-class citizens."

Mr Straw said that when the House of Commons was deciding on tuition fees for students in England and Wales in 2004, SNP leader Alex Salmond and Linlithgow Labour MP Tam Dalyell - both of whom regularly abstained on issues of purely English concern - had taken part in the vote for very good reasons.

"Although the Bill's territorial extent was England and Wales, its potential consequences also extended to Scotland," he said.

He ridiculed the suggestion the Commons should introduce a rule to stop Scottish MPs voting on legislation that did not affect their constituents directly.

He said: "If you had one of these rules, what would happen is as you were going through a Bill line by line the Speaker would be asked to certify this line or that amendment was one on which Scots members could vote.

"It is a piece of political bankruptcy by the Conservatives. And it is very irresponsible. They know it cannot work, it has not worked and it would not work."

He said the proposal represented a retreat by the Conservatives south of the Border.