ANKARA
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have met for the first time after last week’s general election to discuss further devolved powers to Scotland.
Cameron said on Friday he would consider increasing Scotland’s tax and welfare powers in a new devolution bill set to be put before parliament by the end of this month, after Sturgeon complained that the Smith commission proposals did not go far enough.
The Smith commission was set up after last year’s failed Scottish independence referendum to lay out which further powers should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Having won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats in last week’s general election, Sturgeon’s left-of-center separatist Scottish National Party said the proposals were only a “good starting point.”
Sturgeon said in terms of devolution she was prioritizing business taxes, employment law and control over the minimum wage and welfare policy.
"David Cameron and I are a world apart politically but, where we can, I'm determined to do business in the interests of the people of Scotland and across the U.K.," she told the BBC.
Talking to Sky News after their meeting in Edinburgh, Cameron said the bill “gives massive tax and spending powers to the Scottish parliament, so if Scotland wants to take a different path and, for instance, raise more taxes and spend more money, it will be able to.”
The SNP have pushed for full fiscal autonomy, a move previously resisted by the Cameron’s center-right Conservative Party, which won an outright majority last week.
"Let's make sure Smith is implemented in full. I'm going to keep the commitment I made to the people of Scotland. Let's get that done first because it does create a really strong Scottish Parliament,” Cameron told the BBC.
"Of course, if people want to make future proposals I'll look at them," he added, hinting at a softening of his party’s position.
Sturgeon told the BBC that the meeting was “constructive and business-like.”
“We will put forward proposals for devolution further than the commission proposals. The prime minister says they will consider those proposals,” she told Sky News. “I’m not going to put words into his mouth and say he’s agreed any specific proposals.”
Second referendum
The Guardian newspaper claimed earlier in the day that the SNP would stage a second unofficial independence referendum without legal approval or Cameron’s approval.
Scottish Deputy First Minster John Swinney rejected the claims in the strongest of terms.
“There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that I can claim from the general election last Thursday that gives us any right to hold a second referendum on the independence question,” the SNP member of the Scottish parliament told BBC Radio Scotland.
“I don’t think this is remotely on the cards,” Cameron told the BBC when asked about a second independence referendum.
“I tend to take at face value what [former SNP leader] Alex Salmond says on the record, rather than off the record, that this was a once-in-a-generation, potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am sticking with that.”
