Davis Seeks Answer to the West Lothian Question

David Davis argued last week that Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs should not be allowed to vote in Parliament on English laws.

However, he ruled out a separate English parliament — a potential factor that many fear could fragment the UK further. Instead he suggested that voting should be restricted to English MPs on laws relating to England.

"Only English MPs could vote, let's say, on English education policies or English health policies," he said during a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in.

"The Speaker would make a ruling on any bill and then the outcome of that would determine who could vote."

Critics of the government say that it relies too much on support from loyal Scottish Labour MPs to push through unpopular English legislation in Parliament.

However others would argue that under Davis' plans there would become a bias towards the Conservatives in English-only voting.

According to the BBC, more people in England during the last general election voted Conservative than Labour, yet the government still has a 44 member majority over other parties in the Commons.

Davis' comments are the latest addition to the debate surrounding what has become dubbed as the 'West Lothian Question' arising from the devolution act in 1997.

For instance, despite responsibility for education health and transport in Scotland being devolved to the Scottish Parliament, Scottish MPs are allowed to vote on equivalent issues in the UK.

A recent example can be found in the recent smoking ban, where MPs from Wales voted on the English ban in the Commons after voting on the equivalent legislation in the Welsh Assembly.

Labour's initial devolution bill was seen by many as a concession arising from a pre-97 Lib-Lab coalition; and while the Tories were initially opposed, they have since argued for various ways to tackle the difficulties that have arisen.

Conservative answers to the West Lothian Question have ranged from a reduction in the number of Scottish MPs, to the restriction of voting on English issues to English MPs.

Liberals however have traditionally argued for some form of federalism and the creation of an independent English parliament.

Richard Wainwright, the Liberal MP for Colne Valley in 1977, once famously said: "For a government to propose that some British people shall have two Parliaments to shout for them, while others are left with only one, is the last word in political debauchery."

The debate was named the West Lothian Question after it was brought up in the first major debate over devolution in the 1970's by Tam Dalyell, Ex- MP for the Scottish constituency West Lothian.