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“I WILL always stay close to the ground, close to the people … I will always stay the same … That is how we did it. Just to be close and listen. And that’s what I will do.”
Those were the words of new Prime Minister Andy Burnham not one week ago. But a lot can change in six days.
No longer is Burnham interested in being close and listening, and especially not to the Scottish press.
In fact, during his first official visit to Scotland as Prime Minister (taking place in Glasgow today), Burnham has refused to speak to any of the Scottish print media.
Downing Street told the Scottish press pack that he was simply too “short on time”. Soon after, he was live on Sky News having a pint with his new Chancellor John Healey.
Do they not realise we have TV up here?
It's understood Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander also visited BAE Systems in Glasgow and refused to speak with the media. Third time's the charm.
The message to Scotland is clear: forget Burnham’s pledges of a “reset” or “doing things differently” or whatever the new platitude may be. He is continuing down exactly the same path as Keir Starmer: avoid the Scottish media at all costs.
Under Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, and other ministers all held visits to Scotland (sometimes more than once) but refused to speak to Scotland’s press pack (except perhaps a token interview in the Labour-friendly Record).
And it’s not just Burnham continuing the pattern.
The new Energy Secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, is also in Scotland today, visiting Aberdeen for her first official engagement north of the Border. Of course, she has not deigned to speak to any members of the Scottish media.
Earlier on Thursday, there were rumours that Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander might speak to the press in place of the Prime Minister or Energy Secretary. Scant consolation as it would have been, that never transpired.
The evasion of UK ministers stands in stark contrast to the behaviour of their devolved counterparts.
Burnham is in Glasgow to hold his first face-to-face meetings with both Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth. Afterwards, both Swinney and ap Iorwerth will be speaking to Scottish media in back-to-back events in Glasgow.
The UK Government, in contrast, has said that in place of letting Burnham speak to any journalists it will provide a “read out” – which is basically bullet points of what they want you to know was discussed.
The result is that there will be no opportunity to ask Burnham about the “civil war” he has sparked within Scottish Labour by removing its leader Anas Sarwar and planting him in the House of Lords.
Nobody will ask what exactly attracted Burnham to promoting the multi-millionaire scion of a Labour donor family to government, just weeks after his second consecutive historically poor election loss.
There will be no awkward questions about why the Prime Minister, who was not even an MP three months ago, feels he should hold powers over a second independence referendum and not Scotland’s democratically elected parliament.
And don’t expect anyone to ask Burnham why a few years ago he said that any “UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed”, while now he is letting the US president use UK air bases for his illegal war on Iran.
We will, instead, hear about what Burnham said second-hand from the First Ministers who will speak to the media.
You might expect the No 10 communications executives taking £100,000s of public money to have heard of “controlling the narrative”. Apparently not.
Some reset.
Disclaimer: Previously, Labour ministers have avoided almost all of Scotland’s media, but spoken to TV broadcasters or a single newspaper to avoid journalists making blanket statements like: “They have dodged all of Scotland’s media.” Burnham and Fahnbulleh may yet do the same. At the time of writing, however, they have not to The National’s knowledge offered any Scottish media the opportunity to ask any questions.
