Cameron to stress commitment to union in meeting with Sturgeon

David Cameron will underline his commitment to the United Kingdom in his first meeting in Scotland with Nicola Sturgeon since last week's general election, but the encounter is set to highlight differences on constitutional policy between London and Edinburgh.

The prime minister has travelled to the Scottish capital in an effort to show respect for Scotland's devolved administration, but has signalled he will not offer any further devolution beyond a package of powers brokered by Lord Smith of Kelvin last year.

The Smith powers would make Scotland "one of the most accountable and powerful devolved parliaments in the world", Mr Cameron said ahead of the meeting, which began at 10am on Friday with a friendly handshake outside Bute House, the Scottish first minister's official residence in Edinburgh.

"It is time to move beyond the debate about processes and focus on those bread and butter issues that affect every family in our United Kingdom," he said ahead of the meeting, citing jobs, homes and health services as examples.

But the Scottish first minister insisted the Scottish National party's landslide victory north of the border showed the Smith proposals were only a "starting point" that should be followed by control of issues such as the minimum wage and employment law.

"Scotland expects these powers to be delivered - and I expect the prime minister and his government to recognise the democratic mandate that now exists to deliver them," Ms Sturgeon said.

The meeting between the prime and first ministers will be important in setting the tone of relations between the two. Ms Sturgeon promised to take a "constructive and co-operative approach", while Mr Cameron stressed the need for mutual respect and a "One Nation" agenda of "pulling together for the common good".

"I am here today to underline my commitment to our United Kingdom and Scotland's important place within it," the prime minister said.

Mr Cameron has been criticised for a Conservative election campaign that focused heavily on painting the SNP as a threat, with one poster featuring Ms Sturgeon's predecessor Alex Salmond picking an English voter's pocket. Critics say such tactics risked promoting north-south division.

Analysts are also sceptical that the Smith devolution package, under which Scotland will gain powers including control of the bands and rates of income tax and some influence over welfare, will be the "enduring settlement" the UK government is seeking.

The plans have failed to inspire much public enthusiasm in Scotland and will be highly complex to implement, with Westminster MPs in March saying the package had "enormous potential" to create grievance between London and Edinburgh.

A cross-party committee of the Scottish parliament on Thursday said draft legislation published by the UK government in January fell short of living up to the deal.

The Devolution committee, which is dominated by the SNP but has Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour members, identified in a unanimous report failings in all but two of 13 areas of the legislation ranging from government-to-government relations to control over income tax.

"The previous UK government proposals fall short in some critical areas: for example, in regard to welfare the committee considers that the clauses as currently drafted wouldn't meet the spirit and the substance of the Smith recommendations," said committee convener Bruce Crawford, an SNP member of the Scottish parliament.

Committee members called for urgent reconsideration of the draft legislation to clarify how Scotland would be able to create new welfare benefits and how Scottish taxpayers would be defined.

But time for revisions will be limited, as Mr Cameron has promised to include a Scotland devolution bill in the first Queen's Speech of his new government later this month.

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