Westminster Fails Scotland Again on Energy - as Labour and Tories Gang Up

Commenting on the debate in the House of Commons today on the Lords amendment to the Energy bill - and in particular Amendment 54 which removed the Scottish parliament’s powers in respect of renewables obligation in Scotland, SNP Energy spokesman Mike Weir said :

“This is an outrageous example of the unionist parties ganging up to remove powers from the Scottish parliament . Worse still they did so by introducing last–minute amendments in the un-elected House of Lords, rather than even having the courage to debate it on the floor of the House of Commons.

“There was no consultation with the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliament prior to the introduction of this amendment, nor when challenged in the Commons did the minister or his Labour front bench counterpart have any reasonable explanation as to why this happened in such an underhand manner.

“This is yet another example of Tories and Labour ganging up at Westminster against Scotland’s interests and removing powers from Scotland. Whilst the NO campaign talk about vague promises of more powers if people vote NO, the reality is they are removing Scotland’s existing powers by stealth.

“The only way it can be stopped is with a YES vote next September.”