A FORMER UK Government minister has said that the Scottish Government should no longer be permitted to use British Embassies or receive any diplomatic status on international visits.
Lord Frost, who briefly served as the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator and now sits as a life peer in the House of Lords, urged the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to go further in his attempts to freeze Scotland out of international diplomacy.
On Friday, Cleverly stated his intention to ensure that all meetings between SNP ministers and overseas governments would now have to go through the UK Government and be attended by its own officials.
However, Frost said that the Foreign Secretary should “go further”.
“It's not clear why Scottish Govt Ministers need make anything other than occasional overseas visits, any more than local Council leaders do,” he said.
“They run a local administration & international policy is specifically reserved.
“If they do, for example for trade or investment promotion, powers unwisely partly devolved in the past, then they should not get HMG support unless they stick to their subjects.
“If the Scottish Govt chooses to have "External Affairs" or "Europe" Ministers, HMG unfortunately cannot stop them under the current arrangements, but should not suggest they have any independent authority in international relations.”
He added: “Scottish Government overseas offices should no longer be in British Embassies overseas, benefit from any HMG funding, or get any kind of diplomatic or official status.
“This whole current set-up is a legacy of EU membership when supposedly devolved business was actually decided in Brussels. That's no longer the case & HMG needs to present a single face to the world.”
The tweet correctly notes, as the article does not, that they're ministers and officials acting on behalf of a *government* not a political party. All fairly common in federal and decentralised states. Once again the centre seems not to have caught up w devolution. https://t.co/prJrGTV8n5
— Ailsa Henderson (@ailsa_henderson) April 15, 2023
But following an article in the Daily Mail, which stated that Cleverly was attempting to crack down on “SNP ministers” becoming involved in international affairs, politics and international relations professor at the University of Edinburgh, Ailsa Henderson, pointed out that ministers were there in their capacity as representatives of the Scottish Government and not the SNP.
She said: “The tweet correctly notes, as the article does not, that they're ministers and officials acting on behalf of a *government* not a political party.
“All fairly common in federal and decentralised states. Once again the centre seems not to have caught up w devolution.”
SNP MSP Paul McLennan described Frost’s intervention as arrogant. He tweeted: “The absolute arrogance of an unelected Lord - Tory privilege at its worst.”
The party’s international engagement ambassador, Chris Law MP, asked how much further the UK Government was willing to go to prevent Scotland promoting its interests abroad.
“What further steps would you consider?” he said. “Let Scotland get on with its own matter, namely independence, or keep trying to make Scotland get down on vended (sp) knee?”
Since leaving government Lord Frost has joined the Board of Trustees at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, an anti-net zero think tank which has been criticised for promoting scepticism about climate change.
He previously claimed that there was “no climate emergency” and that suggestions to the contrary were “hysterical”.
