THE Scottish Greens have hit out at the Tory Government for plans for a post-Brexit UK “internal market” that “call into question the very notion of devolution itself”.

The proposals have been set out in a white paper on the UK internal market, with legislation to follow later in the year.

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie has written to Business Secretary Alok Sharma asking him to scrap the new laws, which will allow Westminster to veto any devolved decision which threatens “their free market fundamentalism”. The Greens claim this could be applied retrospectively.

Conservative politicians have previously said that various devolved policies are safe but the white paper proposes that “a uniform approach is key to our ability to remain a competitive economy”, which presents a serious threat to devolved commitments on environmental protections, food standards and public ownership.

Ministers in London say the resulting legislation will underpin the UK’s “internal market” and hand extra responsibilities to the three devolved assemblies.

As this could lead to different regulatory regimes in the UK the Government has drawn up a trade bill to underpin the “internal market”.

At the heart of that is a “mutual recognition” mechanism. This would see regulations in one part of the UK recognised in all the other nations.

That terrifies ministers in Edinburgh who believe that regime could ultimately lead to lower standards in food safety and environmental protections being imposed in Scotland.

Harvie said the move shows there is “absolutely no respect” for devolved parliaments.

He added: “Close cooperation between governments is essential, but these proposals aren’t merely a power grab, they call into question the very notion of devolution itself.

“There is absolutely no respect for the decisions of Holyrood, Stormont or the Senedd, who are told they can ‘innovate’ as long as it doesn’t impede the growth of businesses the Conservatives want to surrender our services to.

“Putting the market before democracy is very dangerous indeed. It threatens our environmental, food and farming standards. It threatens Scotland’s decisions to ban fracking or prevent new nuclear power stations,” he continued.

“It could be applied to our bold public health measures such as minimum unit pricing, and it certainly could allow further private sector involvement in our NHS.

“From our fairer tax system to free bus travel for young people, I’m proud of the role the Scottish Greens have played in Scotland’s devolution journey, and we will not accept attempts to roll back on those gains. This dangerous, anti-environment and undemocratic law must be resisted, which why I’m writing today to the UK Government asking them to withdraw these proposals now.”

The National:

Sharma previously said the move would see “the biggest transfer of powers in the history of devolution”. But the Scottish Government has said the plan would “strip power” from the Scottish Parliament.

Last week Scottish Secretary Alister Jack told BBC Scotland plans for a UK “internal market” amounted to a “power surge” and not a “power grab”, claiming Holyrood would not lose a single power, but gain many.

Countering, Constitution Secretary Michael Russell said he had “no doubt” that under the current proposals chlorinated chicken could be sold in Scotland, even if Holyrood objected. He said the UK wanted to be able to do “bad trade deals” with other countries as they were the “only trade deals left to them”.

READ MORE: Michael Russell dismisses Alister Jack's Tory power grab denial