ANDY Burnham gave John Swinney a “fundamentally reassuring” commitment he would respect Scotland’s devolution settlement and hinted giving further powers to Holyrood and councils, the First Minister has said.
Speaking after the signing of a landmark new agreement between the Scottish and Welsh governments in Cardiff on Monday, Swinney said he agreed with the Prime Minister that “Westminster isn’t working”.
“I just think there is a logic in the Prime Minister’s view about the concentration of power in Whitehall,” Swinney said.
“He’s made comments like: ‘Westminster’s not working.’ Well, I agree with him, I came to that conclusion a long time ago. So I think there is a helpful direction of thinking in what the Prime Minister is saying about the need to make sure that power is vested close to people where they live their lives and that to me is a strong argument for Scottish independence.”
He was speaking alongside Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth after the pair agreed to meet at least once a year to discuss areas of common interest like reducing child poverty and challenging anti-devolution laws from Westminster.
Speaking about his first interactions with Burnham after the former Manchester mayor was propelled to power, Swinney said the Prime Minister had committed to “work with us”.
He said: “The Prime Minister made a, for me, fundamentally reassuring, very, very important commitment to me when we spoke on the phone on the morning after he was elected as Prime Minister and then when he came to see me in the first week in office that, whilst he has a very clear agenda about devolution in relation to England, he would respect the settlement in Scotland and work with us.
“He wouldn’t legislate over our heads in relation to the devolution agenda. And I very much welcome that commitment the Prime Minister gave me, he gave the same commitment to Rhun as well and it’s a really important commitment about respect.”
Swinney suggested Burnham should repeal the Tories’ Internal Market Act, which gave Westminster veto powers over Scottish legislation.
He said: “The flip side of that, I think that commitment comes out of respect for the devolved settlement so therefore legislative measures like the Internal Market Act, to me, run contrary to the spirit of the devolution settlement, so I hope the Prime Minister might reflect on the inappropriateness of having measures like the Internal Market Act.”
Swinney added: “What the Prime Minister also said, and this will be part of some of the ongoing discussions that we have, is that he is open to considering how further devolution of responsibilities to the Scottish Parliament and potentially onward to other public authorities in Scotland, especially local authorities, could help the growth agenda. I’m very, very keen to engage on that question.”
