Westminster’s actions mean devolved governments have had ‘no meaningful input’ in Brexit trade talks – Press and Journal

Brexit negotiations have not been materially influenced by Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and any consultation by Westminster has served only as window dressing, devolved leaders have claimed.

In a scathing attack, Europe minister Jenny Gilruth said there had been no meaningful input from the devolved administrations in talks, and on fisheries she claimed Whitehall had ruled out keeping the Scottish Government in the loop.

The comments come just days after the UK Government rejected calls from the Scottish and Welsh first ministers to extend the Brexit transition period.

Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford argued in a letter to Boris Johnson that a delay was needed in order to support businesses through their recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

But Michael Gove confirmed there would be no extension beyond December 31.

Ms Gilruth, appearing at an Institute for Government event, said an extension would give business time to plan.

Well do the best we can, but we are being hampered by not knowing what we need to implement because its still being negotiated, and its being negotiated at ridiculously tight timescales.

She added: I think, from a Scottish perspective, it should be said that we have paused our work on independence to focus on the coronavirus crisis; its really deeply regrettable that the UK Government has not paused their work on Brexit to focus on saving lives.

The minister said that the Scottish Government wanted to reboot the way cross-governmental discussions were held.

Were asking for a reboot in the way the UK Government involves the devolved governments in the Brexit process; were not looking for read-outs, we need to have more of a proactive and meaningful discussion, she said.

Our view is that engagement between the UK Government and the devolved governments has often only served as window dressing rather than playing any meaningful role.

Citing fisheries specifically, she said: We tried to get movement on fisheries and requested that our officials were in the room, that has been ruled out.

Its really worrying that these talks are now going to go into detail without us being in the room on that matter.

Welsh Europe minister Jeremy Miles, appearing before the same panel, said: The promise was that once we got beyond the withdrawal agreement, that we would be in the sunlit uplands of closer engagement.

If anything, engagement has become worse and certainly worse jobs under the Johnson government than under the May government.

However this negotiation turns out, for good or ill, it will have been the UK Governments negotiation, theres no sense in which it has been materially influenced by the devolved governments.

The UK Government was contacted for comment.

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Westminster's actions mean devolved governments have had 'no meaningful input' in Brexit trade talks - Press and Journal