A Plaid Cymru member of the Welsh Assembly has called for Wales to create a Holyrood-style Sewel motion system, after a constitutional row broke out on whether the coalition Welsh Assembly Government could announce new legal proposals without having them vetted by Whitehall first.

New guidance issued jointly by the UK Government and the Assembly Government states that the announcement by First Minister Rhodri Morgan in May on the Welsh Assembly Government’s legislative programme in June, including his intention to propose orders of council – permission from Westminster to legislate – was an exception, as the UK Government had previously had the chance to see and comment on the proposals before they were published.

The guidance concluded: “Any further proposed Orders in Council laid following the summer recess will be submitted to the UK Government to agree the terms of the proposed draft Order before they are laid in the Assembly.”

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood accused anti-devolutionists at Westminster of trying to thwart the Welsh Labour-Plaid Cymru One Wales coalition, but a spokesman for Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said this was “nonsense”.

Wood, regional AM for South Wales Central, said: “This episode makes it clear that the current procedure is not sustainable constitutionally. The regressive anti-devolution Tory and Labour MPs in London are once again seeking to undermine the One Wales programme. The danger is that they will attempt to use this to continue to oppose the coalition.

She added: “A proper Parliament for Wales would not have to go cap in hand to London to pass legislation. Of course, I believe that Wales would succeed best if we could make all decisions ourselves, as an independent nation in the EU, but in the short term, I think we should establish a Sewel-type convention, which would allow party manifesto commitments to be implemented without delay and without interference from MPs.”

The Sewel convention applies at Holyrood, whereby Westminster only intervenes in devolved issues with the permission of the Scottish Parliament. It is named after Labour peer Lord Sewel.

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