English Votes for English Laws is a constitutional issue which has become intensely political

Hours after the Scottish independence referendum results were in, David Cameron announced that any further devolution to Scotland would be linked to a resolution of the ‘West Lothian question’, whereby Scottish MPs are able to vote for legislation in Westminster that affects England but not their own constituencies. William Hague was tasked with leading a consultation process on the issue of English Votes for English Laws and has just outlined a set of options corresponding to the positions of the major political parties. Craig McAngus finds that each of the three parties have clearly attempted to use and exploit this constitutional situation in order to defend their party interest or to gain partisan advantage.