Scotland and Wales’s first ministers have told Andy Burnham that decisions on local devolution rest solely with their parliaments, in response to the prime minister’s push to extend English-style regional powers across the UK.
After Burnham held discussions in Glasgow with John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth about localised employment and reindustrialisation powers, Downing Street characterised the talks as constructive.
However, the defence secretary, Wes Streeting, caused friction before the summit by criticising Swinney’s government for hoarding powers it acquired from Westminster rather than devolving them further.
Streeting told BBC Scotland: “One of the critiques we have … is that for the Scottish government, devolution is often about transferring power, responsibility, resources from Westminster to Holyrood and the challenge Andy Burnham is setting out is: ‘What about devolving more power also from Holyrood to local government across Scotland?’”
Northern Ireland’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, had also been due at the talks, but did not attend after a political row between Sinn Féin and the DUP. Burnham said it was “disappointing” she was not there.
The prime minister said he hoped to have all four UK nations moving at the same pace on devolution, particularly on efforts outlined in Wednesday’s budget to give mayors in England more powers over tax revenues.
“There were further measures in the budget around regional devolution across all of England, and I don’t want to see Scotland left behind,” Burnham said. “I don’t want to see Wales left behind, but also, crucially, I don’t want to see Northern Ireland left behind.”
Ap Iorwerth said he had pushed Burnham on his wish to have more powers for his government.
He added: “I also reiterated the point that further devolution within Wales is a matter for the Senedd and only the Senedd.”
Swinney’s comments after the summit took a similar line, saying he would “work constructively and collaboratively” in devolving more powers to his government, while adding that Burnham had assured him “that he will not bypass the Scottish parliament in this endeavour”.
Despite the emollient tone, tensions remain. Shortly before the summit, ap Iorwerth said Burnham’s first budget, which the Welsh government said amounted to a real-terms funding cut for the country, showed the prime minister was “not serious about Wales”.
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Plaid Cymru, which won May’s Senedd elections, putting nationalists in office in all three of the UK’s Celtic nations for the first time, has already formally asked Burnham to give Wales the same devolved powers as Scotland.
The SNP-led government is frequently irritated by comments such as those by Streeting, characterised by one Scottish official as “lecturing us on devolution”.
Separately, Lee Waters, who was a minister in the Labour-led Welsh government and a member of the Senedd until the elections in May, told the Guardian that Burnham, who was the Greater Manchester mayor before becoming prime minister, should not try to impose an English-style mayoral model on Wales, as “we are not comparing like with like”.
He said: “The term ‘region’ in an English context typically refers to an area covering between ۱.۵ and ۳ million people. In Wales, regions cover much less dense areas.
“Transposing an English mayoral worldview on to a very different political geography just doesn’t work. Wales may be a similar population size to the PM’s old manor but that’s where the parallel ends.
“Andy Burnham talks about the regions of England and Wales interchangeably but the role the new prime minister champions for metro mayors is, in many respects, already performed by the Welsh government.”
