Humza Yousaf: First minister units out ‘radical’ plans for unbiased Scotland to have written structure

“Radical” plans for Scotland to have a written structure if it turns into unbiased have been unveiled by First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Proposals for the doc, which might set out the rights of residents, embody permitting employees to strike and a assure that healthcare is “free at the point of need”.

The structure might additionally rule out Scotland being a house for nuclear weapons, and enshrine the correct to sufficient dwelling requirements, Mr Yousaf mentioned.

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“By helping enhance and protect important rights, it will make a genuine and significant difference to people’s lives,” the SNP chief instructed a information convention in Glasgow.

The Tories branded the proposal the “height of self-indulgence” and accused the SNP of specializing in the mistaken priorities.

But Mr Yousaf claimed the present preparations, with no written structure in place within the UK, imply Westminster might select to abolish the Scottish Parliament.

“That’s not an abstract concept,” he mentioned.

“It is value remembering the UK Government is already significantly contemplating the repeal of the Human Rights Act, one of the vital achievements of any UK Parliament within the final 30 years.

“In future, Westminster sovereignty could even allow the UK Parliament to repeal devolution through nothing other than a simple majority vote.”

With a closing structure solely being developed after Scotland has voted for independence – and never coming into pressure till after individuals have backed it in a referendum – the SNP chief conceded he couldn’t say for sure what can be in such a doc.

However, he mentioned the structure would “embody a set of longer-term, more fundamental values about what a country is for” and set out a “common understanding of a nation’s priorities”, as effectively making a “standard below which no government should ever fall”.

Giving examples, he mentioned such a doc might “protect the right to take industrial action” for employees and will additionally set out “provisions on the right to adequate housing, the right of communities to own land, or our right as citizens to access healthcare which is free at the point of need”.

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He went on to state: “In the Scottish Government’s view, it should also include provisions stating very clearly and explicitly that Scotland will not host nuclear weapons.

“In the context of the Westminster system, these proposals do sound radical.”

Mr Yousaf spoke as he launched a brand new paper on plans for the written structure, which is a part of a sequence of essays from the Scottish Government because it seeks to make a contemporary case for independence.

It is proposed {that a} vote for independence would see the Scottish Parliament develop an interim structure, which might then come into pressure when Scotland leaves the UK.

After independence, a constitutional conference can be established to develop a everlasting structure, with this to be thought-about by Holyrood and in addition put to the individuals in a referendum.

Scottish Conservative structure spokesman Donald Cameron mentioned: “The SNP are so obsessed with their push for independence that they are now pressing for not just one divisive referendum but two to take place if they ever get their way.”

He claimed that the primary minister “knows that the obsession with breaking up the United Kingdom is the only issue that can keep the warring factions in his party together”.

Mr Cameron continued: “Humza Yousaf has a total brass neck saying the cost of living is the number one issue for him, when he is happy to spend taxpayers’ money publishing yet another paper in relation to independence and trying to waste parliamentary time on it next week.”