16:58

Nicola Sturgeon’s government has won substantial cross-party backing at Holyrood to designate its Brexit continuity bill as emergency legislation, allowing it to be rushed through the Scottish parliament in three weeks.

MSPs voted by 86 to 27 on Thursday to make it an emergency bill – a rare occurrence at Holyrood, and to back the Scottish government’s plans to fast-track it through the parliament, with opposition only from the Scottish Tories.

Called the UK withdrawal from the European Union (legal continuity) (Scotland) bill, it is designed to dramatically increase pressure on the UK government to make further significant concessions on the EU withdrawal bill at Westminster.

Welsh ministers are tabling similar emergency legislation in Cardiff Bay, with both devolved governments keenly aware that David Lidington, effectively deputy prime minister, only has until 22 March to strike a deal before the House of Lords votes on the key clause in his bill which deals with devolution after Brexit.

Scottish and Welsh ministers want the UK government to drop or heavily dilute its demands that ministers in London can overrule the devolved administrations on key policy areas currently controlled by the EU.

But Sturgeon’s victory today disguises other problems for her government. Firstly, the Welsh are closer to signing a deal with the UK government if there are further concessions, which would leave Sturgeon isolated. If the UK government does offer significant concessions, at what point will she compromise and drop this emergency bill?

Despite backing his emergency bill plans, Labour, Lib Dem and Scottish Green MSPs want further reassurances from Mike Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister, that there will be sufficiently robust scrutiny of the bill. It also remains legally controversial after Holyrood’s presiding officer, Ken Macintosh, ruled earlier this week that the bill was not within Holyrood’s powers. The bill could yet be referred to the UK supreme court.