{"id":140614,"date":"2018-06-13T12:35:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/snp-mps-walk-out-of-pmqs-in-brexit-power-grab-protest\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T12:35:14","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T12:35:14","slug":"snp-mps-walk-out-of-pmqs-in-brexit-power-grab-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/snp-mps-walk-out-of-pmqs-in-brexit-power-grab-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"SNP MPs walk out of PMQs in &#8216;Brexit power grab&#8217; protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p069ymb4.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionSNP MPs walk out of PMQs in Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">SNP MPs have walked out en masse from Prime Minister&#039;s Questions after their Westminster leader was thrown out of the chamber in a row with the Speaker.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Blackford refused to sit down when ordered to by John Bercow having asked for the Commons to sit in private.<\/p>\n<p>This was in protest at a lack of debate on what he said was a &quot;power grab&quot; in the EU Withdrawal Bill.<\/p>\n<p>It brought PMQs to a temporary halt as the Speaker consulted his officials on what to do next.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bercow said MPs could vote on the request for a private sitting at the end of PMQs - but when Mr Blackford refused to sit back down he was suspended for the rest of the day&#039;s sitting.<\/p>\n<p>His fellow SNP MPs followed him out of the chamber.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scottish MPs&#039; voices &#039;have not been heard&#039;<\/li>\n<li>Scottish government wants devolution changes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How it unfolded<\/h2>\n<p>The episode took place during the weekly Prime Minister&#039;s Questions session after Mr Blackford said it was a &quot;democratic outrage&quot; that MPs had not been given enough time to debate measures he described as a &quot;power grab&quot; by Westminster from Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &quot;Under the circumstances, given the disrespect that&#039;s shown, I have got no option but to ask that this House now sits in private.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bercow said it was better for a vote on his request to take place at the end of the session - but the SNP MP did not agree, rejecting repeated orders from the Speaker to resume his seat.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  House of Commons<figcaption>Image caption                                      John Bercow ordered Ian Blackford to sit down - but he refused                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The next MP to be called for a question was Conservative MP Luke Hall, who joked: &quot;With the amount of people leaving, it feels like one of my after-dinner speeches.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking afterwards, Mr Blackford told the BBC&#039;s Daily Politics his party would &quot;use Parliamentary procedures to best effect&quot; to protest against what he said was devolution being &quot;ripped up&quot; as powers are repatriated from Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>His suspension from the Commons means he is unable to take part in the second day of  debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill.<\/p>\n<h2>Why &#039;sitting in private&#039;?<\/h2>\n<p>Parliament retains the right to hold debates in private and any MP can propose that members of the public and press be removed from the galleries at any time.<\/p>\n<p>If such a proposal is made, the Commons Speaker must put the motion &quot;That this House sit in private&quot; to a vote without debate.<\/p>\n<p>But the procedure is seldom successful - attempts to exclude members of the public are usually deployed as a device to disrupt or delay the House&#039;s proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>MPs used to call out &quot;I spy strangers&quot; to invoke this procedure, but this phrase was replaced with the current wording in 1998.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the Brexit powers row all about?<\/h2>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters                                                    <\/figure>\n<p>The EU Withdrawal Bill is a key plank of the government&#039;s Brexit strategy, aiming to ensure a smooth transition on Brexit day when EU law no applies in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>But the Scottish Parliament has refused to give its consent to the legislation, saying policy in devolved areas that is currently decided in Brussels is being reclaimed by Westminster.<\/p>\n<p>The bill is currently making its way through Parliament  - and although devolution was to be debated in the second half of Tuesday&#039;s session, there were only a few minutes left for this after voting on amendments went on for almost three hours.<\/p>\n<p>The Brexit bill says that the &quot;vast majority&quot; of the 158 areas where policy in devolved areas is currently decided in Brussels will go directly to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments after Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>But it has also named 24 areas where it wants to retain power temporarily in the wake of Britain&#039;s exit from the EU, including in areas such as agriculture, fisheries, food labelling and public procurement.<\/p>\n<p>It says the &quot;temporary restriction&quot; on the devolved governments using some of the powers returning from the EU is needed &quot;to help ensure an orderly departure from EU law&quot; and allow the same rule and regulations to remain in place across the whole of the UK.<\/p>\n<p>But the Scottish government argues that it would leave Holyrood unable to pass laws in some devolved areas for up to seven years.<\/p>\n<p>It has produced its own alternative Brexit legislation, which was passed by MSPs in March but is currently subject to a legal challenge by the UK government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia captionSNP MPs walk out of PMQs in Commons SNP MPs have walked out en masse from Prime Minister&#039;s Questions after their Westminster leader<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}