Jim Sillars warning for Alex Salmond

A FORMER deputy leader of the SNP has warned Alex Salmond the devolution settlement does not give him the power to stage his own referendum.

Jim Sillars said the 1998 Scotland Act, which created the Scottish Parliament, effectively put a “legal fence” around it. He said Holyrood would be acting “unlawfully” if the SNP decided to stage its own vote, rather than one endorsed by Westminster.

He said: “If the Scotland Act, as it does, refuses to give Holyrood powers over the constitution, it cannot hold a referendum.”