A SCOTTISH minister has said Andy Burnham “doesn’t know what he means” with his stated plans to reshape Scottish devolution – and added “I have no idea what he means" either.
SNP MSP and Public Service Reform Secretary Ivan McKee was speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Tuesday and reacting to a speech Burnham made on Monday in which he vowed there would be “new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”.
Burnham also announced plans to set up a “Number 10 North” – an outpost of 10 Downing Street based in Manchester.
Writing in The Scotsman, the former Greater Manchester mayor said it "will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK".
He then added: "Its job will be to make power flow into places like Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Paisley and Easterhouse, not hold it back."
Reacting to this assertion, McKee said that Burnham had provided "catchy lines" but Scottish ministers had not seen any details of the proposals.
Meanwhile, an op-ed published to the SNP website warned that Burnham was "setting out proposals for constitutional tinkering without bothering to involve the devolved governments" and that it was a "dangerous move designed to undermine" Holyrood.
In an interview with CNBC, the First Minister John Swinney also said that the former Manchester mayor’s plans to devolve power away from Westminster need to be backed by substance.
“Rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job-creating powers and the ability to lower energy bills,” he said.
Whilst Swinney said the ultimate goal for the SNP is Scottish independence, he would welcome additional powers for Holyrood and would work "constructively" with Burnham.
“Well, the SNP is an independence party, so we think Scotland will prosper as an independent country. And a key element of that, of course, is that we are unequivocal in our support for an independent Scotland joining the European Union, because so much damage has been done to the Scottish economy by the Brexit process that we never supported in the first place,” the First Minister told CNBC.
"But we have also been pragmatic as a political party in that we have always welcomed any additional powers that have come to the Scottish Parliament to enable us to exercise greater discretion over the policy choices that we face in Scotland, so we have always welcomed and indeed argued for, indeed, I sat on a commission that resulted in more powers coming to the Scottish Parliament.”
Swinney added: “So, while we support independence, and we want independence as quickly as possible, we will always constructively engage to acquire more powers for the Scottish Parliament.”
The SNP leader went on to say that Burnham “has got a lot to live up to in terms of what he has set out”.
Swinney said Burnham has made “great play about the importance of devolving power out of London” and “recognising that Westminster does not work”.
“So I hope he then is prepared to engage with us on a constructive agenda about improving and strengthening the powers of the Scottish Parliament, so that we can make a difference in improving the lives of people in Scotland,” Swinney went on.
“There is an honest discussion that has got to be had about European Union membership. Brexit is being a disaster for the United Kingdom. All the evidence points to that, so the sooner politicians across the United Kingdom face up to that, the better. I'm happy to face up to that, because I recognise Brexit is a disaster. I knew it would be a disaster, so we need to remedy that.”
He added: “Maybe what we also hear from Andy Burnham is a commitment to strengthen the powers of the Scottish Parliament, to make the Parliament more powerful and more influential on the lives of improving the lives of people in Scotland, and we also need to have a fiscal framework set by our fiscal approach set by Andy Burnham that will see investment in our public services and our public infrastructure, because that's desperately required after years and years of austerity.”
