Labour blinkered over Scottish Parliament future

3.09.00pm GMT Tue 27th Feb 2007

Labour is refusing to discuss giving more powers to the Scottish Parliament

Labour is ignoring the will of the Scottish people by refusing to discuss giving more powers to the Scottish Parliament, according to Jo Swinson.

Speaking in the House of Commons today, Jo challenged Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander's statement that the Government has no plans for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament:

"Given that when asked, the favoured option of the Scottish people is neither independence nor the status quo, but in fact to give more powers to the Scottish Parliament, why is the Secretary of State so blinkered as to maintain that the current settlement is the end of the road?"

Commenting further, Jo said:

"Polls have shown that, when given a range of options for Scotland's constitutional future, people's preferred choice is not independence, not the status quo, but for more powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Despite this, the Minister repeated again today that the Government has no plans to further devolve powers.

"There is an appetite in Scotland for giving Holyrood greater scope to govern. Now is the time to establish a Constitutional Convention to examine the transfer of further powers to the Scottish Parliament.

"When it comes to Scotland's constitutional settlement, Labour have their heads firmly buried in the sand."

Related Links:

YouGov Channel 4 poll (Jan 07)

YouGov Daily Telegraph poll (Dec 06)