Andy Burnham is attempting to "steal the limelight" from this week's SNP conference by planning a trip to Scotland, a senior Nationalist has claimed.
Shirley-Anne Somerville said the decision by the Prime Minister to make a visit north of the Border showed he was "lacking in confidence about his message to Scots".
Speech timing and invitation
Burnham is expected to use a speech on Friday - which clashes with the second day of the SNP event in Aberdeen - to set out his belief that Holyrood should push more powers out to local authorities.
Keith Brown, the Nationalist depute leader, yesterday invited the PM to visit the conference to discuss how an IndyRef2 could be agreed in future - although the invite is likely to be ignored.
Political context
The timing of the Labour leader's visit to Scotland is viewed as significant and follows his recent declaration that he was "utterly determined" to prove John Swinney on the future of the Union.
The SNP leader last month predicted Burnham would be the last Prime Minister of the UK in its current guise, as the devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff are now all led by minority nationalist governments.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool earlier this month, Burnham hit back and declared Britain was a country of "solidarity not separation" and said he would fight "to turn it around".
In an emotional reference to his late father Roy, the PM added: "The United Kingdom my dad represented is the one I believe in".
SNP response and referendum remarks
Burnham's trip to Scotland will come the day before John Swinney is scheduled to make his keynote speech to SNP members on Saturday afternoon.
Somerville, the Social Justice Secretary, told the Record the Nationalists were in "great form" following the party's record-breaking fifth Holyrood election win in May.
"I'm really excited to get up there and talk not only about independence, but talk about what the Scottish Government is doing, and look forward to the local elections next year."
The SNP MSP added: "I think it shows Andy Burnham is worried that he is trying to steal some of the limelight.
"To make one of his very few visits to Scotland during the SNP conference, I think, shows Andy is lacking in confidence about his message to Scots, and shows the SNP is in a strong position.
"Otherwise, he wouldn't be trying to detract from one of our main events of the year."
It comes after Burnham was last month forced to clarify remarks made in the House of Commons when he described the path to securing a second referendum in Scotland as being "exactly the same" as the agreed legal route to an Irish border poll.
Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Irish Secretary can decide to hold a referendum at any time - provided there has not been another border poll in the last seven years.
The act also imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to hold a border poll if it appears likely that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote for Irish unification.
The PM later said: "I don't support separation. Let me be absolutely plain about that."
Burnham has previously said he would stick by his party's 2024 manifesto commitment which opposed Scottish independence and the staging of a second referendum.
