---

UK Borders Bill

My Lords, when my noble friend the Duke of Montrose drew my attention to the fact that the Government had said that border controls were a devolved matter, I assumed that there must be some mistake. It is quite extraordinary to have a Prime Minister making speeches telling everyone that they must put flags in their garden and how important it is that we support the United Kingdom and the concept of Britishness and, at the same time, have a Government who are saying that border controls, of all things, should be devolved. Surely border controls are an issue for the United Kingdom as a whole. As my noble friend said, allowing this matter to be left unattended by the Scottish Parliament is leaving the back door—or the front door, as I prefer to see it—open on the United Kingdom. My noble friend Lady Carnegy is much more tactful than I am. I know exactly what Alex Salmond’s intentions are: to break the United Kingdom and create differences between Scotland and England which will enable him to achieve that by referendum. It is a matter of great dismay that this Government of all governments, with this Prime Minister, should be proceeding in a way that means that the control of our borders is subject to a different view north of the border, as my noble friend the Duke of Montrose said.