THE “ball is in Edinburgh’s court,” Whitehall has insisted as ministers from the UK and Scottish Governments sit down once again to try to break the deadlock over the EU Withdrawal Bill.

However, no one is expecting a breakthrough before Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon face each other across the Downing Street table next week; even after that meeting the two governments could still remain as far apart as ever on what each regards as a matter of principle.

Ahead of this afternoon’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee when the Conservative administration’s proposed amendment to the flagship bill will be discussed, David Lidington, the Prime Minister’s de facto deputy, insisted London had already made a “considerable move” and it was now up to the governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff to “respond positively and reach agreement on this basis”.

Nicola Sturgeon interview: 'Even as First Minister men try to explain politics to me'

But Michael Russell, who will represent the Scottish Government at today’s talks, once again made clear the SNP administration would not budge from its position of opposing what it sees as a “power-grab” bill.

Noting how MSPs had approved the first stage of its own Continuity Bill, the Scottish Brexit Minister said: “This is not a course of action we wanted to take but it is one we have been compelled to pursue to protect devolution.”

He stressed how the Scottish Government would be “constructive” at today’s JMC in “seeking to show the UK Government that we can both protect devolution and prepare Scotland’s and the UK’s laws properly in the event of Brexit”.

At Westminster, David Mundell once again expressed confidence a deal could be done and told MPs the UK Government wanted to “agree” common frameworks on 25 of the 111 powers and responsibilities coming from Brussels after Brexit, insisting they “should not be imposed”.

Nicola Sturgeon interview: 'Even as First Minister men try to explain politics to me'

But at Scottish Questions in the Commons he came under a double-attack from Labour and the SNP, which claimed the Scottish Secretary had been left out in the cold over the UK Government’s Brexit strategy.

Lesley Laird, his Labour Shadow, branded Mr Mundell “Scotland’s invisible man in the Cabinet,” who was unable to “even blag himself an invite to the away-day at Chequers to discuss Brexit”.

She questioned whether he had a plan to “fix this mess or will he continue to front up a Government trampling all over the devolution settlement for Scotland?”

Nicola Sturgeon interview: 'Even as First Minister men try to explain politics to me'

A similar attack was made by the SNP’s Hannah Bardell, who suggested the Scottish Secretary was “so out-of-the-loop, he no longer gets invited to Cabinet meetings and has quite simply become an irrelevance".

Mr Mundell said he was hoping to take forward the “solid progress” achieved in the intergovernmental meetings and launched his own attack on Scottish Labour, accusing it of not standing up for the devolved settlement but rather “kowtowing” to the Nationalist agenda.

“She, above all people,” Mr Mundell told Ms Laird, “should know that we have a United Kingdom Cabinet, a United Kingdom Chancellor and a United Kingdom Prime Minister. She should not kowtow to SNP arguments about separatism.”