Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has said “rhetoric alone will not cut it” after Andy Burnham, the likely next prime minister, set out his vision to transform Britain through devolution. Burnham, the new Makerfield MP and frontrunner to replace Sir Keir Starmer, promised “new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland” but failed to provide specific details.
Swinney Demands Substance Over Rhetoric
Responding to Burnham’s speech, Swinney stated: “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.” He added that he looks forward to further detail on the substance of these proposals and how they will improve lives in Scotland and bring down the cost of living.
Swinney also emphasised that Scotland is a “nation not a region” and pushed Burnham to allow an independence referendum if he “believes people should have more control over their future.” He noted that there has been a pro-independence majority in Holyrood for four consecutive elections, a mandate ignored by successive prime ministers.
Burnham’s ‘Number 10 North’ Plan
In his first major speech since Starmer’s resignation, Burnham pledged to set up “Number 10 North” – an outpost of Downing Street in Manchester to drive his plans to rewire the British state. He promised: “The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over, for good.” Burnham argued that people in Dundee and Bangor “feel just as distant from Holyrood and the Senedd as they do from Westminster,” and that his new office would be “the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK.”
SNP and Green Criticisms
SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan claimed Burnham was “making the same empty promises” to Scotland “while keeping all of Westminster’s most damaging policies – Brexit, austerity cuts and Tory spending rules.” 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.” He added: “He seems to think Manchester is the north of the UK, when it’s barely the north of England.”
Scottish Greens’ local government spokesman Kristopher Leask described Burnham’s speech as “big on rhetoric but short on policy, leaving people in Scotland with more questions than answers.” Leask argued that while Burnham is right that the UK is too centralised, the speech was aimed at English regions, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland treated as an afterthought. He said there is a “clear case” for decisions on energy, employment and workers’ rights to be taken in Scotland, but Burnham offered “no meaningful detail” on this.
Conservative Response
Scottish Conservatives leader Russell Findlay said Burnham “needs to flesh out what new powers he’s actually talking about,” but warned that Scots will be “instinctively alarmed at the SNP Government being handed even more control, given their astonishing record of failure.” He cited social security spending as an area where the SNP demanded more powers only to create a system that is “worse value for taxpayers and wide open to abuse.” 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.”
