ZACK Polanski has said Andy Burnham cannot have “any further conversation about devolution” without handing Scots a second referendum if they wish it.
Speaking exclusively to The National, the Green Party leader said Prime Minister Burnham’s opposition to another vote while talking about enhancing devolution is “absurd”.
He added it “feels important” to ensure Scots have a clear path to leave the Union when speaking to The National about Burnham floating the idea of a UK written constitution.
Burnham said last month that another referendum on independence is "off limits", while committing not to overrule the Scottish Parliament in his bid for further devolution across the UK.
Asked whether a path for Scotland to leave the Union should be set out in a written constitution, Polanski told The National: “It would be absurd to have any further conversation about devolution without allowing either Scotland or Wales, if they wish, to have an independence referendum.
“It really shows the devolution plans are built on sand if in the first test of devolution, which is someone at the most local level saying ‘actually we’d like to be independent’, denying them even the right to have that conversation through a referendum.
“[It] feels democratically illegitimate.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said that his plans for further devolution strengthen the case for a written constitution for the UK.
The SNP have argued that any codified constitution would be “fundamentally flawed” if it didn’t contain a route out of the Union.
Plaid Cymru also agreed that any “decisions on Wales's political and constitutional future belong to the people of Wales, and this must be a foundational principle to any future codified constitution."
Polanski said it was up to Scots and Welsh people to decide what any written constitution should say about a route of the Union but added it “feels important” they have one.
But he went on to suggest talk of a constitution is potentially a distraction from crucial reforms such as introducing proportional representation and abolishing the House of Lords.
“A written constitution would be a good thing, but it sounds far too much like kicking the can down the road as opposed to making the changes we actually need now,” he said.
Polanski has previously said he would back independence if he was Scottish, claiming the nation had been “screwed over by Westminster governments”.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon also said in the foreword to the paperback version of her memoir, Frankly, that there should be an “agreement on the objective conditions which would trigger a referendum”.
Sturgeon pointed to the Irish border poll, adding that what that looks like in Scotland would “need debate”, and possibly for independence to “remain at a specified level for a set period of time”.
As it stands, the UK’s constitution is uncodified, existing across a series of sources including statute law, common law, and unwritten conventions.
David Kauders, an investment manager who has written a book on overhauling British politics, told the Sunday National this week a written constitution should provide a mechanism for Scotland to trigger an independence referendum, but federalism could keep the Union together.
Kauders, who has written a draft constitution for the UK in his book Reinventing Democracy: Improving British Political Governance, said that a codified route to a referendum as part of a federal UK would stop “England from treating Scotland like a colony”.
