English lawmakers for English laws?

Last Modified: 28 Oct 2007
By: Channel 4 News

Conservative plans to deny Scottish MPs the right to vote on English affairs at Westminster could herald the break up of the United Kingdom, the Government has warned.

Under the plans - drawn up by the former Scottish Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind - English MPs would form a Grand Committee to vote on domestic issues whilst the entire Commons would vote on UK-wide matters like defence and foreign policy.

He may be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom but, the Conservatives ask, should Gordon Brown, Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy in Scotland, have the right to determine what happens in England's schools and hospitals?

The Conservatives are thinking about creating a committee of English MPs to decide on England-only issues like health, transport, and education.

They say their intention is not to create an English Parliament - more than half the business of the Commons they say would still be decided by all MPs on the floor of the house. So the Tories are saying it's constitutional tweaking - Labour are saying it's catastrophic.

The Tories are saying it's constitutional tweaking - Labour are saying it's catastrophic

It's 2004 and the Government narrowly wins the vote to bring in university tuition fees - it was a vote that threatened the premiership of Tony Blair, and he was saved in part by the votes of Scottish MPs.

Yet thanks to the Scottish Parliament, those same MPs' constituents don't have to pay the fees and England's MPs have no say over education policy north of the border. Just why the voting system works this way is not the only awkward question the Conservatives are asking.

The Conservatives may be happy to question a funding formula that sees English taxpayers subsidising Scotland, but whether they would really change a formula - maintained for 30 years by cross-party agreement - is unclear.

While the Conservatives stir the English lion south of the border, north of it is this man - Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond is busy stirring up his party. He wants to go further than the Tories - today he called on his party, the SNP, to start arguing for a referendum on Scottish independence.

Zoe Conway reports.