10:24

The Welsh government decision to take part in the supreme court hearing on a parliamentary vote on article 50 has sharply increased the prospects that Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government could also join the legal action, writes Severin Carrell.

Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has been poised to seek formal representation in the action if Holyrood’s ability to give legislative consent to the final Brexit deal becomes part of the legal arguments in next month’s hearing.

She told the Scottish parliament yesterday she would actively consider joining the case: “The job of this government is to protect Scotland’s interests; Scotland voted to remain in the EU and my job is therefore to protect our place in Europe and the single market as far as I possibly can.”

This is a contentious area: Theresa May’s UK government argues that leaving the EU is wholly reserved to Westminster as it deals with foreign affairs and treaties. Scottish and now Welsh ministers argue that their devolved powers are directly affected by leaving the EU.

Sturgeon has stopped short of stating Holyrood will try to block Brexit by withholding legislative consent but insists that Scotland’s specific interests are intimately wrapped up in the Brexit deal. Her officials admit that legislative consent is a convention, not a legal right.

Scottish government lawyers have already been sitting in on the high court hearings as observers in case that became an issue. Scottish sources said the statement on Friday by Mick Antoniw, the counsel general for Wales, now made a live prospect.

Antoniw said the article 50 hearing “raise[s] issues of profound importance not only in relation to the concept of Parliamentary Sovereignty but also in relation to the wider constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom and the legal framework for devolution.”