17:01

The Scottish Tories have offered to help end the deadlock between the Scottish and UK governments over Brexit after ministers in Edinburgh again refused to authorise crucial Brexit legislation.

In an unexpected change of tone at Holyrood, the Tories said they wanted to act as an honest broker between the two governments after weeks of verbal sparring over the types of new powers would come to Scotland after Brexit.

That conciliatory tone was matched by Mike Russell, the Scottish Brexit minister, who did not repeat his previous claims that the UK government were plotting a “power grab” by withholding those powers from devolved governments.

Jackson Carlaw, the Scottish Tories deputy leader, said he and Adam Tomkin, the Scottish Tories constitution spokesman, would welcome bilateral talks to ensure both governments could strike a deal which Nicola Sturgeon’s government would accept.

Time is running out for the UK government, which needs the Scottish government to table a legislative consent motion accepting the EU withdrawal bill before it reaches its final stages at Westminster early next year. Carlaw said:

Brexit isn’t politics as normal. If there’s a genuine concern [in the Scottish government] matched by equally genuine resolve to address and overcome this, then the Scottish Conservatives here at Holyrood will play our part.

Russell published a draft memorandum on Tuesday that confirmed the Scottish government would not agree to the EU withdrawal bill until it was substantially rewritten to guarantee Scotland would automatically get former EU powers after Brexit.

Along with her Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has repeatedly accused the UK government of planning that “power grab” because the EU withdrawal bill says all existing EU powers will first return to Westminster.

The Welsh and Scottish governments are due to jointly publish amendments to the Brexit bill next week. Several hours before Russell spoke, Damian Green, the UK government’s deputy prime minister, wrote to the Scottish government offering a date for a long delayed joint ministerial committee meeting between the UK government and the devolved administrations in mid-October.