Gordon Brown calls for more powers for Holyrood as part of 'third option' for Scotland

Gordon Brown has set out a “third option” for Scotland in response to the SNP’s push for a second independence referendum. 

The former Prime Minister argued that Holyrood should be given powers over environmental regulation, fisheries and agriculture as the UK leaves the European Union, as well as having the right to set VAT rates and sign international treaties.

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He also said that £800m currently spent by the EU should be repatriated to Scotland.

The plan was laid out in a speech to the Festival of Ideas in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on the same day that Nicola Sturgeon declares that the will of the Scottish Parliament on another referendum “must and will prevail” in her address to the SNP spring conference.

Brown, whose intervention before the 2014 Scottish independence referendum is often credited with helping the No campaign, claimed the current balance of powers has been made “redundant” by the Brexit vote result.

“The third option, a patriotic Scottish way and free from the absolutism of the SNP and the do-nothing-ism of the Tories, is now essential because post-Brexit realities make the status quo redundant and require us to break with the past,” he said.