'English votes' plans to be unveiled

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 16 Desember 2014 | 19.22

16 December 2014 Last updated at 11:20

A range of proposals for introducing "English votes for English laws" is to be outlined later on Tuesday.

Commons Leader William Hague is to present MPs with a range of options after the parties failed to reach agreement on the way forward.

There have been increased calls for English MPs to have greater power over matters that only apply in England.

It follows the promise of more power for the Scottish Parliament made ahead of the "No" vote to independence.

The options to be outlined by Mr Hague, in a Commons statement at 12.30 GMT, are expected to include:

  • Barring Scottish MPs from any role in English and Welsh bills
  • Allowing English MPs to have a greater say over the early readings of bills before allowing all MPs to vote on the final stages
  • Giving English MPs a veto over certain legislation
  • A separate Lib Dem plan to establish a grand committee of English MPs to scrutinise legislation

Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to bring in changes, saying this should be linked to the transfer of more powers to Holyrood.

Labour is opposed to this idea, claiming it would create two classes of MPs.

Analysis by BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith

Although the prime minister has repeatedly stressed his determination to press ahead with English votes for English laws, reaching any agreement on the measure has so far proved impossible.

Instead, Tuesday's command paper will include a series of options ranging from allowing all MPs to vote on the final stages of a bill to giving English MPs a veto over legislation, and barring Scottish MPs from any role in English and Welsh legislation.

The paper will also include a separate Lib Dem proposal to establish a grand committee of English MPs to scrutinise legislation.

Ministers have promised a vote in the New Year but even this may be difficult to reach agreement upon. In the wake of the Smith Commission proposals to hand over income tax raising powers to Scotland, many Tory MPs are unlikely to settle for anything less than stripping Scottish MPs of the right to vote on any English legislation, including the Budget.

The party boycotted talks led by Mr Hague, calling it a "stitch up".

Labour put forward its own proposals last week, which would create a committee of English MPs to scrutinise bills that would not apply elsewhere in the UK.

This was one of the options put forward by the McKay Commission set up by the government in 2012 to look at the so-called West Lothian Question.

Former Labour deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said the constitutional changes taking place in Scotland had "taken decades" to materialise and yet the Conservatives were now seeking a new settlement for England "in weeks".

"This is a stitch-up," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "They are rushing it through. This is major constitutional change. I support decentralisation but this is centralisation in an English Parliament."

'Window-dressing'

Lord Prescott said the question of how laws were scrutinised in Parliament cannot be "divorced" from the issue of powers for the English regions, warning that if this wasn't addressed it would "cause resentment between the north and the south (of England)".

And the chair of the Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Labour MP Graham Allen, said Parliament had virtually been ignored in the discussions.

"England will remain under Whitehall control with a little different window dressing in a rubber-stamp Parliament," he said.

"Government sees Parliament's role as delivering for Whitehall not championing devolution to the localities of England."

There are differences in the Lib Dem and Labour proposals for how a committee of MPs to vet English legislation would work.

The Lib Dems suggest the make-up of any committee should be based on proportional representation, while Labour wants it to be linked to the number of English MPs in Parliament.

'Tory trouble'

A commission on Scottish devolution set up by Mr Cameron after the referendum recommended that the Scottish Parliament should be able to set its own income tax rates, with all of the cash earned staying north of the border.

It also said a share of VAT should be assigned to Holyrood and Air Passenger Duty fully devolved.

Many Conservatives argue that it is unfair that Scottish MPs should help decide how things such as schools and the health service are run in England when English MPs have no such say over how they are run in Scotland.

The government has also said it will give English councils more powers over transport and control over their finances in an attempt to create what Chancellor George Osborne calls "northern powerhouses".

Professor John Curtice, from the University of Strathclyde, said he did not believe there would be an agreement on the issue on Tuesday.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "Although David Cameron started this particular ball rolling, and for a while at least it was a ball that did indeed cause the Labour Party considerable embarrassment, I think we are going to discover today that actually now he has got trouble on his own side of the House of Commons."


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