Theresa May to offer Scotland more powers after Brexit in showdown meeting with Nicola Sturgeon
THERESA May will hint at more powers for Scotland after Brexit in a bid to torpedo a second independence referendum.
The PM flies to Glasgow for a showdown meeting with nationalist First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The trip comes just 48 hours before she fires the starting gun for ‘Article 50’ EU exit talks on Wednesday with a letter to Brussels bosses.
The symbolic visit is also ahead of Holyrood MSPs’ vote on whether to push for second poll in three years on whether to break away from the rest of the UK on Tuesday.
Raising the prospect of another power transfer from Westminster to Edinburgh, Mrs May will say in a speech: “ I believe when we work together, there is no limit to what we can do.
“In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that means fully respecting, and indeed strengthening, the devolution settlements.”
But the PM will also insist it also means “never allowing our Union to become looser and weaker, or our people to drift apart.”
A heated debate is under way over what former EU powers should be assumed by the UK government in Whitehall or by regional administrations after Brexit.
SNP boss Ms Sturgeon wants to assume control over agriculture and especially fishing, with Scotland’s big coastline giving it vast territorial waters.
Mrs May will also highlight the reach that UK has across the globe during a speech to government workers at the Department of International Development’s Scottish HQ.
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She will add: “When this great union of nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – sets its mind on something and works together with determination, we are an unstoppable force”.
Labour raised a fresh threat to Mrs May’s final Brexit deal yesterday by vowing to vote it down in the Commons unless the PM meets six new tests.
The biggest is for it to deliver the “exact same benefits” for the economy as Britain currently has as members of the Single Market and Customs Union?
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said “unfettered access” to trade with the 27 other member states was “fundamental” for his party’s support.
Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer will say: “There is a worrying and increasingly powerful move on the Government benches to sever our links with Europe.
“This ideologically driven approach to Brexit would be disastrous and divisive.”
It also emerged that the Brexit ministry wants to allow EU nationals already living here to keep all their state benefits after Britain leaves.
The move cuts across a Tory manifesto pledge to end migrants’ ability to send child benefit abroad.
Timeline to the big break-up
MARCH 29: Theresa May triggers Article 50 exit talks in letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk, setting clock ticking on a two-year time-limit to conclude a deal. The move is irreversible.
MARCH 31: Donald Tusk will give the EU’s remaining 27 member states’ initial response to Mrs May.
APRIL 29: Emergency summit of the 27 EU leaders to agree on the mandate for their lead negotiator Michel Barnier to conduct exit talks.
MAY 7: French presidential elections final run-off. Many believe serious talks cannot begin until we know who the next French president is.
MID MAY: Michel Barnier draws up EU’s negotiating guidelines based on the mandate given to him. The EU’s council of foreign ministers meets to sign them off.
LATE MAY/EARLY JUNE: Face-to-face Brexit negotiations between Britain and the EU begin.
SEPT 24: German elections, to decide if Angela Merkel continues as Chancellor or is ousted. Difficult for much to be agreed on Brexit until then.
OCTOBER 2018: Both sides want to conclude negotiations six months before Britain leaves the EU to give the Houses of Commons and Lords, as well as the European Parliament and other national assemblies, time to ratify the final Brexit deal.
*MARCH 29, 2019: Britain must leave EU by this date. A transitional deal to avoid cliff-edge changes expected to kick in.
(*Unless there is a unanimous decision by all 27 remaining members and Britain to extend Article 50 negotiations beyond the two-year time limit set out in the Lisbon Treaty).