SNP labels House of Lords Scotland Bill amendments “an affront to democracy”

 The SNP has labelled the House of Lords amendments to the Scotland Bill “an affront to democracy”, after the Commons rejected welfare amendments backed by both the SNP and Scottish Labour.

With SNP MPs outraged by the way the Scotland Bill was treated by Parliament, an SNP MP accused the Tories of arrogance by, “ignoring Scotland’s voice while listening to the democratic absurdity of the House of Lords.”

David Cameron used PMQs last week to accuse the SNP of “endlessly talking about the process”, rather than specifying how it would use further devolved powers.

SNP House of Lords spokesperson Kirsty Blackman said: “It is an affront to democracy in the 21st century that there remains a legislative chamber completely unaccountable to the electorate – and that this out of touch, unelected group looks set to have more influence on amending the Scotland Bill than Scotland’s MPs is completely absurd.

“Just last week, 58 of Scotland’s 59 MPs voted for amendments to the Scotland Bill and were overruled by the Tory government with just a single Scottish MP – the fact that the Tories now look set to take on board amendments from the unelected Lords simply adds insult to injury.

“David Mundell and David Cameron need to understand that they cannot simply bypass the democratic will of people in Scotland.”

Responding to SNP MP Angus Robertson in PMQs, Cameron said: “Let me tell him again: instead of endlessly talking about the process, is it not time that the SNP started to talk about how they are going to use these powers? Why do they not tell us? Which welfare benefits do they want to put up? Which taxes do they want to increase? Why do they not start to tell us?

“I have been following the debate very closely and have noticed that none of Scotland’s 59 MPs is arguing that the state pension should be devolved. In other words, the principle of pooling and sharing our resources and risks across the United Kingdom, which I believe in as leader of the United Kingdom, is apparently shared by the Scottish National party.”