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A FURIOUS row broke out after David Cameron snubbed today’s House of Commons debate on delivering more powers to Scotland.

The Prime Minister was accused of a “dereliction of duty” after ducking out of the first Westminster debate on Scotland since the referendum.

Instead former foreign secretary William Hague will open the all-day Commons session on

delivering the pro-Union parties’ vow to deliver more devolved powers to Scotland.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart accused Cameron of being scared “to look Scots in the eye”.

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But Labour, the Lib Dems and Downing Street sources insisted it was correct for Hague to kick off the debate in his role as Leader of the House – the cabinet minister responsible for arranging Government business in the Commons.

Perthshire MP Wishart said of Cameron and the vow: “It is appalling that he is not going to be there to look Scottish people in the eye and say that he will deliver it without caveat or condition or connection to any other issue.”

Cameron will be holding a Cabinet meeting just a few hundred yards from Parliament this morning and will be in London this afternoon.

Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said the vow made by Cameron, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Labour’s Ed Miliband on the front page of the Daily Record is already being put into practice.

He said the cross-party Smith Commission, charged with agreeing more powers, were up and running on September 19.

He added: “The timetable is demanding but that is because the demand is there in Scotland, it is a demand we shall meet.”

Carmichael said he welcomed the participation of the SNP in the Smith Commission process and hoped it was being done in good faith.

But he warned Wishart: “He should take heed of the 61.9 per cent of his own area who voted to remain part of the UK.

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“If he tries to subvert the Smith process by getting independence through the back door, as others have said, then he will pay a heavy price for that.”

Margaret Curran, Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary, said: “In unprecedented numbers, the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom.

“This was an historic decision and it was emphatically clear.

“Scottish people voted for pooling and sharing resources across the UK, they voted to continue with devolution and they voted for a stronger Scottish Parliament.”

Today’s Commons debate is part of a week-long devolution agenda at Westminster which began with a formal command paper on more powers that was published yesterday.

As well as today’s six-hour debate, tomorrow will see the first Scottish Questions session on the floor of the Commons.

The issue is also bound to come up at Prime Minister’s Questions tomorrow.

On Thursday, former PM Gordon Brown’s adjournment debate on devolution will be heard in Parliament.

But the SNP last night accused Westminster of falling short of the promises made in the vow – and hit out at English MPs using yesterday’s proceedings to talk about devolution for England.

The first Tory MP to intervene was Scots-born Liam Fox, who called for English votes for English issues.

Then Labour MP John Denham demanded that if “Scotland will get what Scotland wants and so England must get what England wants”.

But Scottish Lib Dem MP Menzies Campbell said: “Change in Scotland should not be held up to allow England to catch up.”

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