English MPs must be given powers to pass legislation affecting only English voters, such as tax rates, the Conservatives have said, pledging to begin making changes to House of Commons rules within 100 days of the election.
"Left unchanged, the way in which English laws are made will become steadily less democratic and accountable," said former British foreign secretary William Hague, who was given the job of investigating increasing the powers of English MPs after last year's Scottish referendum.
Dubbed “English votes for English laws”, the Conservatives believe the policy will influence voters in key battleground constituencies who are fearful of the power that could be wielded by Scottish National Party MPs after May 7th.
Scotland will be given powers to set its own tax rates once devolution powers promised before the independence referendum are implemented over the course of the next year, regardless of whether the Conservatives or Labour win power.
Unfair
“Rightly so,” said
David Cameron
, but he added that it was “simply unfair” that “English MPs will be unable to vote on the income tax paid by people in Aberdeen and Edinburgh while Scottish MPs are able to vote on the tax you pay in Birmingham or Canterbury or Leeds”.
However, Hague has sought to make clear that the restrictions would cover only English tax rates, and not votes dealing with tax thresholds, or allowances, which would continue to be dealt with on a United Kingdom-wide basis.
The Conservative plans, however, are filled with pitfalls, and not just with Scotland, since significant numbers of Welsh people work in England, crossing the Welsh border daily. Their MPs would be denied a voice on the rates of tax they pay.
Constitutionally, legislation emerging from Westminster is a patchwork quilt: some issues are dealt with on a UK-wide basis; some on a GB basis (minus Northern Ireland). Some matters cover England and Wales, but only a tiny fraction covers England alone.
However, Cameron insists that the Conservatives’ plans will safeguard the existence of the United Kingdom, not jeopardise it: “We do not support English nationalists; we do not want an English parliament. We are the Conservative and Unionist Party through and through.”
Cameron also asked how it could be right for the Scottish parliament to cut air passenger duties, but for Scottish MPs to come to Westminster and impose higher rates on competing North of England airports.
Under the Tory plan, MPs from England, or from England and Wales depending on the legislation, would debate the detail of legislation during Committee Stage debates in proportion to their party strength.
“No legislation, or part of legislation Bill relating only to England would be able to pass to its third reading and become law without being approved in a Grand Committee made up of all English MPs, or all English and Welsh MPs,” says the Conservatives’ paper.
MPs from the rest of the UK will not be excluded from discussing or voting on any legislation through its other stages, but they could not pass it without English, or English and Welsh consent.
However, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said Cameron's English votes plan was "an absolute breach of the agreement" that they made to the Smith Commission.
“Scotland is now in danger of being caught in a classic pincer movement between a Tory party that wants to cut Scotland out of the UK budget and the SNP that wants to cut Scotland out of UK taxes,” he declared.
