A LABOUR peer has been forced to turn to “plan B” in his bid to undermine devolution in Scotland.
George Foulkes had proposed a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Lords which sought to allow the UK Government to dictate how the SNP government in Edinburgh spends its money.
The bill aimed to prevent the devolved government spending any money at all in reserved areas. This would have given Tory ministers the power to prevent planning work on a second independence referendum, as well as stopping overseas offices representing Scotland internationally.
Foulkes had bragged the bill would, if successful, “be the end of indyref2”. The Labour peer reportedly had the backing of senior Tory MP Liam Fox and the Conservative peer Michael Forsyth.
However, it fell at the first hurdle on Thursday after it was not selected for debate in a sort of raffle held in the Lords.
Only the first 25 Private Members’ Bills drawn from a hat would move forward and earn a chance to be debated. Foulkes’s bill did not make the cut.
Unperturbed, he has announced that he will instead seek to put an amendment on a different bill in order to make his proposals law.
Foulkes tweeted on Thursday: “Sadly my bill was not one of the top 25 in the ballot so I now move to plan B to move an amendment to a suitable Government bill.
“I will keep up my campaign to hold @scotgov to account.”
Commenting on the potential bill, an SNP spokesperson previously told The National: "Last year, the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly in favour of pro-independence parties, who stood on a mandate to deliver a referendum in this parliamentary term.
"The SNP are fully committed to delivering on that promise, and no unelected Lord at Westminster will change that."
