IT WAS a great relief that the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. During the last few weeks of the campaign, Scottish friends and colleagues genuinely feared that our Union may break up, as resentment against austerity and Westminster politics caused undecided voters to consider a yes vote, despite their uncertainties about issues like currency. Our Union, which has survived for centuries, was under threat.

Faced with that situation after the result, the Prime Minister should have acted like a statesman and worked to bring our nation together by healing the wounds of a divisive campaign. Instead, he chose to make a partisan pitch to his own backbenches by raising the issue of ‘English votes for English laws’ – or ‘Tory votes for English laws’ as one colleague joked.

There was a debate last week in Parliament on this issue, at which I spoke. The Government’s plan is wrong and impractical. Stopping Welsh and Scottish MPs voting on some issues would mean creating two classes of MP. That would cause constitutional chaos and threaten the very future of our Union. Even in countries like Spain, in which areas like the Basque Country and Catalonia have high levels of devolved power, their representatives have the same rights as others. What about Welsh MPs who represent border areas, where many constituents work or access public services on the other side of the border?

Most of all though, the plan just won’t work. Of the last 400 or so Bills that have gone through Parliament, only a tiny percentage of them were purely ‘English’. Most Bills have clauses that effect Wales in some way, or have financial consequences for us due to the way funding is distributed.

There are issues which need to be discussed calmly and sensibly – including how England, its regions or its cities gain some form of devolution. English MPs are right to ask questions about that, but the over-the-top indignance of some Tory MPs during the debate was a little galling. They cried ‘injustice’ all afternoon, but I would rather reserve that term for the fact that under their Government, more and more people can’t afford to heat their home, feed their family or pay the Bedroom Tax. Or for a Minister disgracefully suggesting disabled people aren’t worth the minimum wage and should work for £2 an hour. I suspect the irony may have passed them by.

Legitimate questions about England won’t be solved by diminishing the rights of Wales or Scotland within the Union, and they certainly won’t be solved by the Prime Minister playing panicked, partisan games that are unworthy of his position.