ANDY Burnham has abandoned his plans to “tear up” the way the Scottish Parliament is funded.
The would-be prime minister, who could be in Downing Street in a matter of weeks, has ditched his ambitions to scrap the Barnett Formula which works out the amount of cash sent to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
His latest U-turn came after we revealed how the new Labour MP had written two years ago that he felt the funding mechanism for Holyrood had afforded Scotland “protection” from austerity and that this was unfair on the north of England.
The so-called King of the North wrote: “The time has come to tear up the Green Book [official UK Government spending guidance] and the Barnett Formula and replace them with a modern funding formula which works for the English regions and the home nations.”
In the book Head North, co-authored with Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotherham, he added: “As we've explained, the Green Book drags funding towards London and the South East. This is then badged as ‘English’ funding. The Barnett Formula then adds on consequential funding to the home nations as a result of this.
“While it aims to protect the devolved nations in terms of funding, there is no corresponding funding protection for the English regions. This is why the English regions continually miss out.”
But the Makerfield MP has since walked back the proposal, telling the BBC it was no longer part of the plan.
The National has also been told that Burnham would not scrap the Barnett Formula.
Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay said: “U-turn after U-turn before he has even taken up the post of prime minister suggests Andy Burnham has no principles.
“Instead of coming with fresh ideas and policies that will actually lift people out of poverty like properly taxing wealth to make life better for everyone across our nations, it seems that Keir Starmer will be replaced with someone who is ready to maintain the status quo and prolong the austerity that Labour has inherited from the Tories and somehow worsened in a matter of years.”
A spokesperson for the MP told BBC Wales: “Andy has spent his whole political career fighting for the nations and regions of the United Kingdom – he will put Wales at the centre of any government he runs, radically pushing power down and out of Westminster and Whitehall.”
It will be disappointing to the Plaid Cymru administration in the Senedd, who have long called for a fairer funding settlement for Wales, arguing that the country is short changed by Westminster.
Speaking before Burnham’s U-turn, Plaid’s Westminster leader Liz Saville-Roberts told the BBC: “In his book Andy Burnham called for a 'new arrangement that is demonstrably fair to all'. We will hold him to that.
“Any reform he makes to bring about fairer funding for northern English regions must also address the longstanding underfunding of Wales.”
It is a major shift in position from the expected next prime minister, who had written of how getting rid of the Barnett Formula was “critical” to his vision of a “more successful” Britain.
The formula calculates “consequentials” which flow from UK Government spending in devolved areas, which are then passed onto the national parliaments to spend as the devolved administrations see fit.
The call had generated controversy when it resurfaced earlier this week, with the SNP saying that Burnham should go further and give the Scottish Parliament "full fiscal powers".
The Scottish Greens meanwhile claimed the likely next prime minister was playing Scotland off against English regions" and argued that his focus should be on ditching Labour's fiscal rules which are "guaranteeing a continuation of austerity".
