SNP and Plaid Cymru MPs have raised the Catalan crisis at Westminster, accusing the Spanish government of committing a “serious and persistent breach” of the EU’s founding principles in its handling of it.

Seven SNP members – including co-sponsors Douglas Chapman and Brendan O’Hara – yesterday tabled an early day motion (EDM) calling on the UK Government to raise with the EU a procedure under Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which is also known as the EU’s “nuclear option”.

Under it, member states can be punished for failing to abide by the EU’s basic tenets, including “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights”.

The EDM, the primary sponsor of which was Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, read: “That this House calls on the Government to press the relevant EU institutions to consider launching a procedure under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union in response to the Spanish state’s actions in relation to the Catalan crisis, which include the prosecution and sentencing of Catalan political and civic leaders, on the grounds that there is a clear risk that Spain has committed a serious and persistent breach of the EU’s founding values of respect for freedom, democracy, justice and human rights outlined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.”

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The ”nuclear option” has never been invoked, but if a unanimous vote is passed by the European Council, the Spain’s voting rights in the European Parliament could be suspended. Chapman, who is also on the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Catalonia, said: “The UK government’s response to this crisis has been nothing short of a disgrace and we should be seeing action from them to bring proceedings against Spain.

“Earlier this week a Foreign Office Minister repeatedly told the House of Commons that they will not interfere with the decision of the Spanish courts, but only last month they were criticising the Court of Session in Edinburgh. If this government believes in the principles of human rights, freedom, democracy and justice then it will push for these proceedings to be started – this isn’t about independence, it’s about protecting these core values.”

Meanwhile, the University of Barcelona’s Human Rights Observatory has voiced “deep concern” over the arrests of nine people – seen as Catalonia’s latest “political prisoners” – in Catalonia last month, on alleged terrorist offences.

It said Solidarity Alert lawyers reported that in all but two cases, searches were carried out on detainees’ homes with no legal representatives present. In two cases, the accused had been interrogated constantly for up to eight hours.

The Observatory said the Bar Association in Sabadell had told Solidarity Alert solicitors it had received no communication from the Civil Guard that legal aid lawyers had been appointed, which went against established practice.

It added there was “a clear and worrying tendency by the forces of order ... to carry out their operation without regard to the violation of the rights to defence of the detainees.”