ANDY Burnham's pitch to Scottish voters was a "tartanised copy and paste" job that made multiple errors about Scotland's political set-up, it has been claimed.
The Makerfield MP, who is widely expected to become the next UK prime minister in weeks following Keir Starmer's resignation, penned an article for the Scotsman laying out his pitch to voters north of the Border.
In the piece, which appears to be slightly adapted from the statement made at Manchester's People's Museum on Monday, the former city mayor makes a number of inaccurate statements about policies in Scotland.
Burnham told readers in Scotland that they should be able to "take greater public control of essential services such as water, housing, energy and transport, learning from the model that has transformed our bus networks in Greater Manchester".
Three out of the four areas he suggested he will give Scots more power over are already devolved to the Scottish Government. Scottish Water, too, is already in public ownership, while ScotRail has been nationalised since 2022.
Elsewhere, Burnham promised his Number 10 North, based in Manchester, will work with local areas to "oversee the biggest council house building programme since the post-war era". As housing is devolved, this would require the UK Government to reach past the Scottish Government in breach of the current devolution settlement.
Burnham also stated: "Britain has lost almost one and a half million council homes since the 1980s ... That has to change."
The right to buy your council home, brought in by Margaret Thatcher's government, was ended in Scotland in 2016 under the SNP administration at Holyrood.
At the time, housing minister Kevin Stewart said: “By ending the right to buy we are protecting up to 15,500 social homes from sale over the next 10 years and safeguarding this stock for future generations."
Former SNP policy convener Toni Giuliano told The National it looked like the "copy and paste" Scotsman article had been "written for an English audience and simply tartanised/adapted very slightly".
“This is a car-crash pitch to Scotland," he said. "Andy Burnham has tartanised an article written for an English audience without noticing Scotland has already abolished right to buy and kept water in public hands.
“If you’re asking Scotland to listen and pitching about devolution, the least you could do is understand the powers it already has.
“It seems the King of the North can’t see past Berwick upon Tweed. Devolution aimed at rebalancing England while keeping Scotland on a tight constitutional leash simply won’t cut it. The change we need is independence.”
SNP MSP Stuart McMillan added: “Andy Burnham has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding when it comes to Scotland – we already benefit significantly from crucial services, such as water supply and rail services, being publicly owned.
“The people of Scotland do not need another Westminster politician telling us what is best. The Tories did it for years and now the Labour Party is intent on doing the exact same, with Westminster, nothing ever changes.
“If Andy Burnham is the great champion of devolution he claims to be he should listen to the people of Scotland and hand over the powers to hold a referendum on independence.
“It is becoming clearer by the day that the prime minister in waiting doesn’t have a clue about Scotland – the best way to create real positive change in our nation is through a fresh start with independence.”
Meanwhile Scottish Greens MSP Kristopher Leask said it's "evidently clear" that Burnham doesn't understand the needs of Scotland.
"He offers no real change from the status quo of current Labour austerity, except a new office being built in the north to make his own commute shorter," he continued.
“Pulling up a list of Scottish towns, cities and council regions to rhyme off in lists doesn’t make people feel more connected to Westminster or his proposed Number 10 North. What it does is show that he can read a map, but not the room.
“The people of Scotland set a mandate in May when they elected the largest ever group of pro-indy MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. If Andy Burnham wants to be seen as revolutionary by decentralising power from Westminster, then he must be willing to work with us to fully devolve the powers of a normal country to Scotland.”
Scottish First Minister John Swinney said after Burnham's speech on Monday that he wanted to hear “further detail on the substance of these proposals, and how they will fundamentally improve people’s lives in Scotland”.
The SNP leader also warned Burnham that “rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job-creating powers and the ability to lower energy bills”.
