NICOLA Sturgeon has said trust in Westminster has been eroded by the Brexit negotiations and caused relations between the Scottish and UK governments to deteriorate.

The First Minister spoke out at a press conference following a British Irish Council meeting on Guernsey, which she attended along with the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones. UK Prime Minister Theresa May did not go.

The summit came just over a week after SNP MPs walked out of the House of Commons chamber during Prime Minister’s Questions in protest at the UK Government’s handling of the EU Withdrawal Bill and the ejection of the party’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, by the speaker.

Holyrood refused to give its consent to the bill amid fears it would undermine the powers of the Scottish Parliament but, in an unprecedented constitutional development, the UK Government pressed on with the legislation anyway.

The First Minister said: “Our experiences in recent weeks and months around the Withdrawal Bill discussions have put a strain on that trust and I think inevitably have eroded it. I am certainly very keen to see how we can rebuild it and re-establish it.”

Sturgeon added that “respect and consent” must be the basis of working relations.

She went on to say Holyrood will not give consent to any further Brexit legislation until the “broken” devolution system is fixed and wants the Sewel Convention protection written into law, meaning the Scottish Parliament would have to agree to future common frameworks in the UK in areas such as farming, fishing and food standards.

Scotland’s Brexit Minister Mike Russell, who was also at the summit, said the Scottish Government no longer trusted UK ministers following a breakdown in relations over the handling of the EU Withdrawal Bill.

He added he “couldn’t conceive of circumstances” where MSPs would vote to give approval for further legislation related to leaving the EU, such as trade, agriculture and fisheries.

MPs approved parts of the EU Withdrawal Bill related to devolution after less than 20 minutes of debate last week, despite the Scottish Parliament voting against granting formal consent for the bill.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Russell said: “We are absolutely clear that the way devolution operates and the structures of devolution have failed, and they failed because the UK Government is refusing to operate them.

“For example, on the Sewel Convention, we need to have the interpretation of that written down in statute and made legally binding, because what we presently have is a situation where the UK Government makes the rules and then breaks them, and there are no sanctions.”

Russell said that while there was “practical work” to do to prepare for Brexit, “it is very difficult to do that work because, frankly, we don’t trust the UK Government with it”.

David Lidington, the de facto deputy UK Prime Minister, who attended the summit instead of May, said there had been a “real” disagreement over the Brexit process, but insisted the Sewel Convention, which means Westminster does not normally legislate on devolved matters without Holyrood’s approval, had been “upheld in full”.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Varadkar warned a deadlock over the Irish border meant it is more likely the UK will crash out of the EU without a deal. He said the EU was stepping up preparations for a no-deal scenario as the deadline looms and that efforts to find a resolution would intensify.

Varadkar “I think it [no deal] is more likely than it was a few months ago but I still don’t think it is likely. Ultimately it is in the interests of Ireland, the UK and the European Union that we have an orderly Brexit and a new relationship that works for everyone.”

Lidington said he was confident a withdrawal agreement would be reached in the autumn.

The BIC brings together representatives of the Irish and British Governments, the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey crown dependencies.