Scotland’s First Minister has said “rhetoric alone will not cut it” as Andy Burnham, the likely next prime minister, set out his vision to transform Britain.
While the new Makerfield MP – the frontrunner to replace Sir Keir Starmer – promised there would be “new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”, his speech failed to include details of what these changes could be.
John Swinney responded to Mr Burnham that Scotland needs more job creating powers and the ability to control its energy.
Mr Swinney said: “I have heard Andy Burnham’s proposals, but rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job creating powers and the ability to lower energy bills.
“I look forward to further detail on the substance of these proposals, and how they will fundamentally improve people’s lives in Scotland and bring down the cost of living. I will engage with the new Prime Minister in good faith, with Scotland’s interests always at the top of my agenda, and look forward to welcoming him here in the coming weeks. ”
His comments came after a speech where Mr Burnham pledged to set up “Number 10 North” – an outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester to drive his plans to rewire the British state.
In what was his first major speech since Sir Keir announced he would be leaving Downing Street, Mr Burnham promised: “The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over, for good.”
Adding that people in Dundee and Bangor “feel just as distant from Holyrood and the Senedd as they do from Westminster”, he said his new “Number 10 North will be the nerve centre of a rewired Britain” and would be “the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK”.
However, Mr Swinney said that Scotland is a “nation not a region” and pushed Mr Burnham to allow an independence referendum if he “believes people should have more control over their future”.
He continued: “However, Scotland is a nation and not a region, and there has now been a pro-independence majority in Holyrood for four elections in a row. This mandate has been ignored by successive prime ministers for years. If Andy Burnham genuinely believes people should have more control over their future, he can recognise that by confirming Scotland’s national right to self-determination.”
SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan also claimed that the former Greater Manchester mayor was “making the same empty promises” to Scotland “while keeping all of Westminster’s most damaging policies – Brexit, austerity cuts and Tory spending rules”.
Mr Doogan said: “The SNP has been calling for meaningful devolution for years but there is nothing of substance for Scotland in these proposals – and nothing that will fundamentally improve people’s lives.”
Speaking about Mr Burnham, the SNP MP added: “He seems to think Manchester is the north of the UK, when it’s barely the north of England.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Greens’ local government spokesman, Kristopher Leask, said that Mr Burnham’s speech was “big on rhetoric but short on policy, leaving people in Scotland with more questions than answers”.
The Green MSP stated: “Burnham is right that the UK is far too centralised, but this was clearly a speech aimed at the English regions, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland treated as an afterthought.”
Mr Leask argued there was a “clear case” for decisions on energy, employment and workers’ rights to be taken in Scotland – but said the likely future Labour leader had “offered no meaningful detail” on if this would happen.
He added: “One of the biggest and most immediate tests will come in how he responds to our pro-independence Scottish Parliament calling for the power to hold the referendum that Scotland just voted for.
“If Labour wants to distribute power but refuses to trust the people of Scotland with a choice over its future, then its commitment to devolution rings hollow.”
Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay also said that Mr Burnham “needs to flesh out what new powers he’s actually talking about”.
But he added: “Scots will be instinctively alarmed at the SNP Government being handed even more control, given their astonishing record of failure.
“Social security spending is just one area where the SNP demanded more powers only to create a system that is worse value for taxpayers and wide open to abuse.”
Mr Findlay added: “Weak Labour politicians seem incapable of understanding that they’ll never pacify the SNP by constantly extending devolution.
“John Swinney doesn’t want devolution to work because his only interest is his lifelong obsession of taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom.”
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