Boris Johnson is set to abolish the controversial English Votes for English Laws rule in the House of Commons in a bid to keep the Union together.
Michael Gove, the cabinet’s pointman on independence, has said he would back scrapping the so-called EVEL legislation brought in by David Cameron immediately after the 2014 referendum.
Cameron brought it in to ensure that bills, amendments and clauses of legislation affecting England alone must be approved by a majority of English MPs.
But the move created an immediate nationalist backlash that led to 56 SNP MPs being elected to Westminster the following year.
Gove wants to scrap the controversial voting mechanism which has in any case been suspended in April last year to simplify Commons proceedings during the pandemic.
Gove has proposed the voting device be abolished altogether to make Parliament work “for every part of the UK and every party in the UK”.
He told the Times newspaper: "Ultimately, it’s a convention which arose out of a set of circumstances after the 2014 referendum, where you had a coalition government and so on.
"We’ve moved on now, so I think it’s right to review where we are on it … My view is that the more we can make the House of Commons and Westminster institutions work for every part of the UK and every party in the UK, the better.
"We have been throughout Covid operating without English Votes for English Laws. And I think that’s worked well, and I think that we can reflect on the lessons of operating without the need for English votes for English law.”
Abolition of EVEL is backed by Scottish Secretary Alister Jack but is being resisted by other cabinet members.
Gove said: "Obviously it can’t just be a unilateral decision by any individual, it has to be considered one that is put forward and accepted by the Commons as a whole.”
The move came as former a Whitehall mandarin warned that support for the Union is “fraying”.
Philip Rycroft, former Scotland Office adviser and Head of UK Governance in Cabinet Office, told a House of Lords committee on the constitution that support for the Union is “fraying”.
He said: “It is not sustainable in the long term to have around 50 per cent of the people of one part of the territory of the UK expressing a wish to leave it.
"That, to my mind is the major challenge of governance. It requires vision and some courage to take the requisite steps to stabilise the Union."
He added: "The aim is not just about getting that percentage back up to 51 or 52 per cent. If we’re to put this question to bed for the medium and longer term it means looking to achieve levels of support for the Union consistently over time 60 or 65 per cent, or higher.
"This is not going to be easy.”
Ian Murray, Scottish Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, said: “EVEL was an ill-judged and reckless act by David Cameron which undermined the Union just hours after Scots voted to remain in the UK.
"The policy is an incomprehensible mess which has weakened British democracy, weakened Scotland’s voice in Parliament, and created two classes of MPs despite being supported historically by SNP MPs.
"It led to the perverse situation where some unelected members of the House of Lords are more powerful than elected MPs. It was also never needed.
"Any move to scrap EVEL is welcome, but this saga shows that the Tories can’t be trusted to stand up for the Union."
