Scotland Secretary Alister Jack says Angus Robertson made false statement every six seconds in devolution video

Scottish secretary Alister Jack has criticised constitution secretary Angus Robertson over a video claiming the UK Government has taken control of Scotland’s powers without consent.

Alister Jack has accused a Scottish Government minister of making a “false claim every six seconds” over suggestions the UK Government has undermined devolution post-Brexit.

The Scottish secretary criticised constitution secretary Angus Robertson for releasing a video in which he said a new report showed the UK Government had increased control over Scotland’s devolved powers and imposed legislation without consent.

Published on Wednesday, the 16-page document from the Scottish Government set out the main points of constitutional disagreement between Holyrood and Westminster which have emerged since the referendum to leave the EU.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack criticised Angus Robertson.

The report claimed there had been nine occasions where Westminster had proceeded with legislation which was refused consent by Holyrood.

Speaking at Scotland questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Conservative MP David Duguid (Banff and Buchan) accused Mr Robertson of making a “range of spurious claims about devolution being under attack by the UK Government”.

Mr Jack replied: “I did see Angus Robertson’s video clip and I think I counted 16 false claims in the space of one minute and 40 seconds. That’s a false claim every six seconds – pretty impressive even by his standards.

“As usual it’s the nationalists who are desperate to invent a grievance. But the reality is it’s the UK Government that respects devolution, we support devolution, we’ve strengthened devolution. The only people who want to destroy devolution are the ones who want to rip us out of the United Kingdom.”

Mr Jack also faced questions about why he did not support the Privileges Committee report into former prime minister Boris Johnson.

The committee found Mr Johnson committed “repeated contempts” of Parliament.

The former prime minister was said to have deliberately misled MPs with his Partygate denials and was accused of being complicit in a campaign of abuse and intimidation, with Mr Johnson hitting out at the “deranged conclusion”.

Mr Jack said: “As I said to the media last week when I was interviewed and this question was raised, very simply because I felt the report was too excessive in its conclusions.”