An SNP minister has accused the UK Government of “lies” as the row over Brexit powers ramped up again.
Mike Russell, the Scottish Government Brexit Secretary, said the UK government's list of 111 powers flowing to Scotland from Brussels after was a misrepresentation.
Boris Johnson has claimed Brexit will result in a “power surge” to Scotland as he prepared to publish legislation for a UK internal market to replace the EU Single Market.
Russell said the list was simply “a mishmash of things that the Scottish Parliament already has, seems to have already decided we won’t have and things that could be automatically overwritten by the decision of the UK to take the power away.
“These are not new powers going to Parliament, That is actually, I’m sorry to call it this, a lie.
"The list is a misrepresentation, and nobody should be fooled about it. What is actually happening here is taking away very significant powers that will have an effect on our daily lives.”
The Scottish government has claimed Johnson is embarked on a “power grab” that Nicola Sturgeon said amounted to “an assault on devolution”.
The White Paper on an Internal Market states the UK government is to allow goods to be traded freely between the four nations once Britain leaves the EU’s single market and customs union.
Ministers say the measures are needed to avoid “serious problems” in trade across the UK, and offer certainty for businesses.
Devolved nations will be required to abide by the “principle of mutual recognition “, meaning that regulations from one part of the country will be recognised across the devolved nations.
The UK Government argues that this will “ensure the devolved administrations can set their own rules and standards, but still welcome the trade of businesses based anywhere in the UK”.
But Russell said the UK government would try and drive down “the high and sensible standards” that the EU had in place.
He said: “The reason for that is in order to get trade deals which we would not otherwise get, because for example, the United States will not give trade deals, unless agriculture is involved, and the US agriculture will drive down standards.”
