Theresa May seeks to break Brexit deadlock with Scotland and Wales

Theresa May will hold private talks with the Scottish and Welsh first ministers on Wednesday in an effort to end the deadlock over their new powers after Brexit.

May is urgently trying to resolve a heated dispute about Westminster’s plans to temporarily restrict law-making by the Scottish and Welsh governments over at least 24 EU powers which will be repatriated after Brexit. These areas – which are controlled by the EU but overseen by the devolved governments – include GM crops, pesticides regulation, organic farming, fishing quotas and food safety.

The prime minister will host separate bilateral meetings with Nicola Sturgeon and Carwyn Jones after all three leaders hold a joint ministerial committee at Downing Street, underlining the pressure May is under to resolve the dispute before meeting other European leaders on Brexit next week.

UK ministers want changes in these areas to be agreed under UK-wide common framework agreements to protect the UK’s internal market and overseas trade. They published an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill on Monday in the Lords which said those restrictions would be temporary.

The amendment binds UK ministers to consult with the devolved governments on the frameworks and report to the Commons on progress to implement them, but the devolved governments insist that is an unconstitutional restriction on their powers.

Source: theguardian