Britain agreed to further dismantle its highly centralised system of government yesterday, striking a political deal to grant Scotland new tax-raising powers in a move critics fear could trigger the beginning of the end of the UK.
The deal, unveiled yesterday after an agreement between all the Scottish chapters of Britain’s main political parties, will trigger the biggest transfer of powers to Scotland from the UK since 1999 when a Scots Parliament was set up and will be implemented after a UK-wide election next year.
It is likely to spur demands for similar powers from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teeing up political uncertainty and heralding an eventual redistribution of power in the world’s sixth largest economy to its constituent parts.
Scotland, which already enjoys a large measure of autonomy and voted to reject full-blown independence in September, will get the power to set income tax rates, some influence over welfare spending, and powers to decide how the Scottish Parliament and other structures are selected and run.
“This I think is a good day for the UK,” Prime Minister David Cameron said, playing down fears from lawmakers across the political spectrum that it could weaken the UK and was the start of a slippery slope to a break-up.
Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), said the deal didn’t go far enough.
“I welcome all new powers,” she said. “But 70 per cent of our taxes and 85 per cent of welfare staying at Westminster is not real home rule,” she said, referring to the British Parliament.
70 per cent of our taxes and 85 per cent of welfare staying at Westminster is not real home rule
Under the settlement, Scotland will have control over tax revenues worth £20 billion a year and welfare spending worth £2.5 billion a year.
Part of a power play by Britain’s established parties to neutralise a threat from the SNP two months after it lost an independence referendum, the left-leaning opposition Labour party is hoping but cannot be sure it will revive its flagging fortunes in Scotland before next year’s UK-wide vote.
Just weeks after seeing their dream of an independent Scotland wiped out in a historic referendum defeat, Scottish nationalists have turned failure into a revival which could transform British politics.
Opinion polls suggest the SNP, which has just six seats in the House of Commons in London, could win more than 50 of the 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament next year.
Labour, which has relied on Scotland to boost its UK-wide support, would be wiped out north of the border.
Ed Miliband, the leader of Labour, which is narrowly ahead of Cameron’s party in UK-wide opinion polls, hopes the deal will resurrect his party’s dismal ratings.
“We have listened to the people of Scotland just like we are listening to the people of England and Wales about them wanting more power over their own lives,” Miliband said yesterday.
Cameron said the agreement kept a promise to Scots to give them more powers and would be followed by proposals to only allow lawmakers in the British Parliament representing English constituencies to vote on laws affecting only England.