Scotland Dismisses U.K. Internal Market Plan as ‘Power Grab’

(Bloomberg) -- Scotland will fight U.K. government proposals for an internal market to replace outgoing European Union legislation from the start of next year, accusing authorities in Westminster of using the plan to undermine devolution.

The plan represents a “blatant power grab” which Scottish legislators must defend against, Michael Russell, the Scottish cabinet secretary for the constitution, Europe and external affairs, told lawmakers in Edinburgh on Thursday.

“What the U.K. government wants is not smooth trade, but to take back control -- and not just from the EU, but from the people of Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland,” said Russell, a member of the Scottish National Party. “This government will fight the proposals tooth and nail, in every possible place, and with no intention of giving way.”

The clash between the devolved administration and the central government threatens to complicate a process that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s officials have said is intended to prevent trade barriers within the domestic market when the country’s post-Brexit transition period concludes at the end of the year.

While U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has said the plan will see more than 100 powers covering areas from food standards to the environment returned to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland’s semi-autonomous government has said the move will in fact diminish its own powers.

“It is not too late for the U.K. to turn back from this route,” Russell said.

Tensions between the administrations in London and Edinburgh have been growing in recent months, over issues including the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s job-retention program and Johnson’s refusal to sanction a fresh independence referendum.

Those issues, along with the fact that Scotland voted 62% to 38% in favor of remaining in the EU, have helped bolster support for independence. A series of polls in recent months show that a majority of Scots now favor breaking away from the three-centuries-old United Kingdom, after voting to stay in 2014.

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