Scottish first minister demands further devolution of powers

British Prime Minister David Cameron has to consider devolving more powers to Scotland on a priority basis, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was on Sunday cited by BBC as having said.

"What we will argue for is priority devolution of powers over business taxes, employment, the minimum wage, welfare, because these are the levers we need to grow our economy to get people into work paying taxes and lifting people out of poverty.

"I think he has to and that clearly is one of the things we are going to have to discuss," Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party (SNP) has bagged all but three seats in Scotland in the recently-concluded general election, was quoted as saying on BBC's Andrew Marr programme.

The SNP is the third largest party in Britain despite only contesting in Scotland.

On full fiscal autonomy to Scotland, she said: "It would be the responsibility of the Scottish government and our MPs down in the House of Commons to make sure we get a good deal."

But she added that any move to full fiscal responsibility would take several years to implement.

Last year, the Scottish independence referendum saw the "No" side winning by 2,001,926 votes to 1,617,989 for "Yes". The national split of the vote was 55 percent for "No" to 45 percent for "Yes".

In the aftermath of the referendum, the Smith Commission was formed to fulfill the pledge to give Scotland further devolution.