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PM backs Scottish powers review

Prime Minister Gordon Brown backs a review of Scottish devolution
Gordon Brown has told the BBC he backs a review of powers of the Scottish parliament, including taxation policy.
Speaking to BBC Scotland's The Politics Show, the prime minister said there was a "very strong case" for a review after ten years of devolution.

One outcome could be more tax-raising powers for the Holyrood parliament.

Mr Brown also backed Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander, who is under pressure over an illegal donation to her leadership election campaign.

"She has had my support, has my support, will continue to have my support," he said. "She's a talented individual full of ideas about the future."

'Financial responsibility'

Mr Brown said she was "doing a very good job in difficult circumstances... after the Scottish parliament elections" last May, when Labour lost to the Scottish National Party.

Ms Alexander has been cleared of wrongdoing over the donation, but the SNP says her leadership has been undermined by the investigation.

Backing her plans for a fresh study of devolution, Mr Brown said: "There is an issue about the financial responsibility of an executive or an administration that has £30bn to spend but doesn't have any responsibility for raising [that].

"In any other devolved administration in the world, there is usually a financial responsibility that requires not only the spending of money by the administration but also its responsibility to take seriously how it raises money."

Mr Brown continued: "Now the question is, just as local government has to raise some of its money through council tax, just as many other areas in the world where there are devolved administrations have to raise money through assigned taxation, is there a case for doing so?"

Ms Alexander unveiled her plans for a Scottish Constitutional Commission on 30 November.

At the time, she said there remained "unfinished business" from the 1999 Scotland Act, which was the cornerstone of the devolution settlement, and that it was up to pro-unionist parties at Holyrood to "fix it".

The debate over devolution is likely to re-open the controversy over the voting rights of Scottish MPs in Westminster, known as the "West Lothian question".

Some Labour MPs are known to be unhappy about the review of devolution, saying that it plays into the hands of the Nationalists, who under Alex Salmond are pushing for independence.

For the full interview with Gordon Brown watch The Politics Show on Sunday at 1200 GMT on BBC One.

BBC NEWS | UK | PM backs Scottish powers review

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Britannist

Whatever Brown says or does there will be nothing for England in the way of equality for England with Scotland in the UK (ie. an English Parliament to match the powers of the one Scotland has had within the UK since 1999).

Labour is an anti-English party.