When more home-rule powers were offered to Scotland in the heat of the country’s independence referendum campaign, the promises came with rare and unqualified support from the three main British political parties, all desperate to avert a Scottish breakaway.
However, soon after the Scots voted on Thursday against separation from the UK, consensus gave way to confusion as politicians bickered over how to carry out the plan, and pro-independence Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said that Scottish voters had been “tricked” into voting “no.”
Officially, the main British parties say they will meet their promise to give greater powers, including those related to income tax, to the Scottish Parliament, which already controls policy on issues such as education and health.
There could be “no ifs, no buts,” said Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, which opened its annual conference in Manchester on Sunday.
Yet the plan is politically contentious, with the Labour Party fearing that it faces a trap over what has become known as the “English question.”
The sticking point is whether granting more powers to Scotland should be linked to offsetting moves that would strengthen the power of English legislators over laws that affect only England. That idea has been proposed by the Conservative Party, led by British Prime Minister David Cameron, but the plan would inevitably hurt Labour, which is strong in Scotland.
As they work on the details of the constitutional change they promised, politicians are confronting the ramifications for the rest of the country, which has an unwritten, ramshackle constitution.
England is the dominant part of the UK, economically and in terms of population, yet the English have usually resisted efforts to build up powerful regional parliaments, preferring to be governed from Westminster.
Scotland currently has a privileged position because, in addition to having its own parliament in Edinburgh, it elects 59 lawmakers to the Westminster parliament who can vote on all laws, even those that apply just to England.
The Conservative Party wants to stop the Scottish lawmakers from having a say on matters that affect only the English.
For Cameron, that change would offer a political advantage because his party holds just one of Scotland’s 59 seats.
The Labour Party holds 41 of those seats and would see its power diminished if the lawmakers that Scots elect to Westminster lose some voting rights there.
Miliband wants to move ahead with more self-rule for Scotland before confronting what to do about England. He has suggested a constitutional convention, which would consider all the issues and begin work next year.
His party is likely to prefer a less dramatic change, perhaps allowing only English lawmakers on committees reviewing legislation that affects just England, but permitting all deputies, including Scots, to vote.
On Sunday, Miliband said that he did not want “to play fast and loose” with the constitution, adding that there was no “simple answer” to the issues raised by the aftermath of Scotland’s fractious referendum.
However, an ally of Cameron’s in parliament, Member of Parliament Michael Gove, told the Times of London on Saturday that it would be “impossible” to give further control to Scotland without addressing the role of Scottish members of parliament at Westminster.
British Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling said some English voters would be furious if they did not get the same powers as those being proposed for Scots.
Some Conservative lawmakers have even suggested creating a first minister for England.
The party is also worried because it faces competition from the right, in the populist UK Independence Party, which could benefit from any English backlash.
Salmond, who has announced that he will step down as Scotland’s first minister, seized on the confusion on Sunday.
“I’m actually not surprised at the cavilling and reneging on the commitments. I’m only surprised by the speed at which they’re doing it,” he told the BBC program Sunday Politics. “It’s the people who were persuaded to vote no who are misled, who are gulled, who are tricked effectively.”
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