Ruth Davidson 'frustrated' at government's slow progress on Brexit bill
2 min read
Ruth Davidson has hit out at the Government over delays to the EU Withdrawal Bill, saying she is “frustrated” with the pace of progress on the legislation.
The Scottish Conservative leader said she would be discussing the impact of the Brexit bill on the devolved governments when she meets Theresa May in Downing St on Monday.
The Scottish and Welsh governments have raised concerns over clause 11 of the bill, which would see powers in devolved areas such as farming and fisheries initially returned to Westminster.
Scotland Secretary David Mundell had said he wanted to address the concerns of the devolved administrations at reports stage in the Commons.
However ministers have now decided to delay the changes until the bill goes to the House of Lords.
"I'm frustrated that it's not happened already,” Ms Davidson told Good Morning Scotland.
“The work that's going on between the civil servants of the UK government and the Scottish government is taking longer than we had thought and anticipated and I find that frustrating.
"It also requires political input as well, so ministers are talking as well - one of the very first phone calls that David Lidington made when he became the new Cabinet Office secretary in charge of part of the guts of Brexit was to (Scottish deputy first minister) John Swinney to have that discussion.
"I know that colleagues have sat down with (Scottish Brexit minister) Mike Russell as well…I'm going down to see the prime minister to give my, sort of, talk about this."
She said the process was taking longer than anticipated because it was unprecedented in British politics.
“We had all hoped that would be possible, it’s just taken longer than we thought, like I say, because this has never been done before”.
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