A SCOTTISH Labour MP has compared Andy Burnham with John Swinney, saying that they both "blame Westminster" for their own failings.
Torcuil Crichton, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, also defended Keir Starmer’s record and suggested that voters were to blame for the Prime Minister's resignation.
Speaking with BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal’s Aithris Na Maidne earlier in the week, Crichton played down expectations about Burnham’s abilities.
The Scottish Labour MP said that Burnham was able to “blame Westminster” when things went wrong and cast doubt on whether he would succeed as prime minister, which the Makerfield MP could be in as little as three weeks’ time.
In the Gaelic-language interview, translated here into English, Crichton said: “I shook hands with him yesterday in the Lobby, I congratulated him but I don't really know him.
"Yes, he put together a policy platform in Makerfield which saw off the right wing. He has been mayor of Manchester. But ask just John Swinney, being head of a devolved administration is the best job in British politics.
"You can claim credit for all that is good and blame Westminster for all that is bad and goes wrong.
“It is a different matter in Downing Street, where you have responsibility for the country as a whole. And as I say, I work in the WI [Western isles], Andy Burnham works in Manchester, and it’s a question whether either of us would succeed in the nation as a whole.”
Speaking to The National, Crichton said: “Devolutionary leaders have the constitutional sweet spot, credit for everything but blame for nothing.
“That’s going to be a strength for Burnham now dealing with Swinney, he knows how that operates.”
He added: “Burnham’s own experience as a devolved leader is something of a strength when dealing with other devolved leaders.”
In the radio interview the Western Isles MP also claimed that Starmer had “dealt with child poverty” and suggested voters had to bear “responsibility” for the Prime Minister being ousted.
Crichton said: “Starmer put the country back on the international stage, we put the economy back on its feet, dealt with child poverty, improved the NHS in England at least, and increased the average wage.”
Asked why Labour would not keep Starmer in post, he said: “Well there is the voters, and they will have also have to take this responsibility, not just Labour members.
“The message was quite clear in Makerfield, Scottish and Welsh elections, that people were personally blaming Starmer that no progress was being made in their daily lives.
"They were impatient for that and they blamed Starmer for it, and he took that responsibility.”
