Lord Steel says SNP must cede control of vote on Union

FORMER Presiding Officer Lord Steel has added his voice to calls for the SNP in Holyrood to lose control of the independence referendum, demanding that it is handed over to the Electoral Commission.

The former Liberal leader who led a commission into making the case for a more federal system of devolution, made his call in a lecture at Toronto University last night. He said that the obvious solution to organising the referendum was for the “Scottish and UK governments to discuss this in an adult fashion and agree how to proceed”.

He added: “There is a growing feeling among Scottish parliamentarians that if this is not resolved soon it would be better to add to the Scotland Bill a new clause taking the matter out of the hands of the vested interests of the political parties and authorising the Electoral Commission to get on with it.”

He said he believed that would be the wish of most Scots.

The SNP has said only it has a mandate to run an independence referendum, although legally an official one needs to be called by Westminster.