Lord Forsyth brands Gordon Brown’s new Scottish powers timetable ‘pathetic’

“This talk of St Andrews night and Burns night is unbelievably pathetic.”

A former Scottish Secretary has derided Gordon Brown’s timetable for delivering more powers to the Scottish Parliament as “unbelievably pathetic”.

And he has suggested the chance of any legislation getting started, let alone passed, before May is slim.

Michael, now Lord Forsyth, the last Tory Scottish Secretary, was responding to the former PM’s pledge to deliver new powers on tax and spending for the Scottish Parliament by January.

He said: “Parliament doesn’t return till the middle of October then there will be a half-term break a few weeks later then it will be Christmas.

“They’ll return half way through January and half way through February the Civil Service will start putting up no entry signs the convention is they don’t start on new initiatives in the run up to a General Election.

“This talk of St Andrews night and Burns night is unbelievably pathetic.”

Under the timetable outlined by Brown in the last few days of the referendum campaign, Westminster will produce a White Paper for discussion by November 30 and a draft Scotland Act by Burns night, January 25.

Lord Forsyth said coherent “proposals” are what’s needed.

“It’s like a bus timetable which is all very well but if you don’t fill in the destinations it’s not useful at all,” he said.

“The vow signed by the party leaders is not a particularly responsible promise. It commits to more powers but it doesn’t say what powers.

“We need to take a rather more sophisticated look at it rather than just throwing a few morsels to the Scottish Parliament.”

Lord Forsyth called on the government to take up a House of Lords recommendation to scrap the Barnett Formula and share resources according to need rather than population as is currently the case, even though it would lead to Scotland getting less money.

He said: “In Scotland’s case a needs-based approach might disadvantage it. Some places would lose out if you switched to a system based on need, that’s why we called for a 10-year transition.”

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The timescale is what was promised, both the SNP and more importantly the electorate will hold Westminster to account on both the susbstance and timescale for more powers.”