The Scottish and UK governments must do “much more” to work together on nuclear and defence projects to drive economic growth, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister has said.
Darren Jones said he has extended a “genuine offer of collaboration” to ministers in Edinburgh, acknowledging differing views on the issues.
The Scottish Government is opposed to new nuclear power north of the border.
While defence is an issue reserved to Westminster, Scottish Government development agencies have not supported certain companies involved in producing munitions.
Mr Jones was speaking as he addressed figures in the financial services industry at Scotland’s Global Investment Summit, hosted on the Royal Bank of Scotland campus in Edinburgh.
He joined Sir Keir Starmer’s Downing Street team in the Prime Minister’s recent ministerial reshuffle.
Taking questions from the audience, he was asked whether there is a coherent approach to economic growth across the UK.
The Labour minister, who is also responsible for intergovernmental relations, said: “We have a shared ambition for that – we consulted and engaged with the Scottish Government on the UK industrial strategy and its development.
“But we know there are certain aspects of policy that are devolved and are ran differently by the Scottish Government (to) the Westminster Government.”
He said in his previous role at the Treasury, he was able to give potential investors a 10-year “pipeline” of major infrastructure projects the UK Government would be procuring.
In contrast, he said he was not able to “plug in” the Scottish Government to this pipeline.
Mr Jones said there are areas of disagreement on “defence and nuclear, where there are different views between the Scottish Government and the Westminster Government”.
He added: “It needs to be much more routine that we build these products together when we’re interposing business and investors, because it’s in our shared interests.
“That’s certainly the case I’ve been making to my counterparts in the Scottish Government.
“Hopefully they will have seen from my time at the Treasury and now in 10 Downing Street that it’s a genuine offer of collaboration.”
However, the SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown said the Labour minister’s comments were “ill-judged”.
He said: “It’s shocking, but not particularly surprising, that Labour’s idea for collaborative working is to tell a democratically elected Scottish Government to fall into line with Westminster.
“The fact that these are the views of the Labour minister for intergovernmental relations is deeply concerning and shows a complete ignorance of how devolution works in practice.
“These ill-judged comments get to the heart of this Labour Government’s contempt for Scotland – and show exactly why we need a fresh start with independence.”
