The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has had a fundamental impact on devolved government’s ability to influence the UK Government’s position in relation to the EU.
Our findings point to the new intergovernmental arrangements moving in the direction of becoming a mechanism by which to maintain and improve relationships between levels of government around the UK, it also underscores the potential variability of intergovernmental relations on Europe. This relates particularly to the top-down dynamic and the impact of party politics on the operation of these mechanisms. Ultimately, working relations between civil servants London, Edinburgh and Cardiff continue to be significantly important to the operation of these new intergovernmental relations structures.
Within the UK’s asymmetric multi-level framework of governance, there is even more incentive for the devolved governments to be able to upload priorities and preferences into decision-making, and to advance alternative approaches to key policy challenges. Making this system work will become increasingly significant in an era of new party-political leaderships across the UK’s four nations.