Lord Advocate for Scotland, Dorothy Bain QC, wrote to the high court at the request of the first minister two weeks ago seeking clarity on whether the Holyrood parliament can legislate for a second referendum without permission from Westminster under a Article 30 provision, which Boris Johnson has repeatedly. refused to grant. Last week the text of that letter was released, confirming that Bain feared such a bill would not be legislated under Holyrood’s devolved powers. Filing an initial response to the high court on Tuesday, British government lawyers say it remains their “clear view” that a bill legislating for an independence referendum would be outside the Scottish Parliament’s legislative remit. Furthermore, they point out that the Scotland Act 1998 sets out a legislative process to check whether legislation falls within Holyrood’s remit, but that this process only starts after a bill has been debated and passed by MSPs, and so the current a request for the court to consider the bill is premature. This echoes a ruling by the tribunal, Scotland’s highest court, handed down last year in response to a case brought by independence campaigner Martin Keatings. He wanted judges to rule on whether Holyrood had the legal powers to hold another referendum, but the case was dismissed as “hypothetical and premature”. A UK Government spokesman said: “We are clear that now is not the time to discuss another independence referendum when people across Scotland want both their governments to work together on the issues that matter to them and families their. However, following the Lord Advocate’s referral of the Scottish Government’s draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill, the UK Government has today submitted its initial response to the high court. “The documents confirm that the attorney general for Scotland will become a formal party in the case and ask the court to consider whether to accept the lord advocate’s referral.” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The development comes as the first Tory leadership candidates make their pitches to Scottish MPs. Writing in the Scottish Daily Mail on Tuesday, Penny Mordaunt vowed to overturn the SNP’s electoral dominance by tearing down its “yellow wall” and said she would refuse to “play Nicola Sturgeon’s games” come second ballot time. On Sunday Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt told BBC News that it should be at least a decade before another independence referendum is held.
