Burnham makes 'regional empowerment' offer to Swinney and Welsh leader in Glasgow

A new offer to the nations

Prime Minister Andy Burnham chairs the National Economic Council in Glasgow on Friday, 30 October, where he will make an offer to the governments of each nation. An overnight briefing from No 10 said he is less interested in handing more powers to the devolved parliaments and more interested in what he calls 'regional empowerment', meaning models that let cities and regions use their own strengths. In his pre-summit statement, Burnham said the offer would go to every nation and that every city and region in the UK should be part of it. He described the approach as a partnership with the UK government, in which politics is set aside in favour of practical models.

In a column for The Scotsman, Burnham argued that Scotland has led the way on devolution, but that the principle was meant to push power down to every postcode rather than stop at the Scottish Parliament. He wrote that Westminster and Holyrood have not worked well enough together, and that power has been hoarded centrally. He said some places have raced ahead while others have been left behind, a situation he believes politicians have been too willing to accept. Burnham framed the offer as part of a wider programme of change and said:

“Through No 10 North, we are rewiring the state. I want to make sure every city and region in the United Kingdom is part of that.”

Funding and the Budget

Burnham points to £600 million of extra UK government funding that the Scottish Government can spend as it chooses. He says the UK has given the Scottish Government £18 billion more since July 2024. He also cited an extension of the VAT cut on electricity bills and investment in defence, research and clean energy. In England, every council taxpayer in bands A to D will receive £100, and he has asked Holyrood to match that offer in Scotland. He wrote that he and John Swinney will not agree on everything, but that they share ambitions to reindustrialise, create good jobs and give young people a future in Scotland.

Attendance and tensions

John Swinney, the Scottish First Minister, and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Welsh First Minister, will attend the meeting. Since the May elections, when Plaid Cymru won in Wales, the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have for the first time all come from nationalist parties that want to break away from the UK. Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin First Minister of Northern Ireland, will not attend. She shares power with a DUP deputy, and the DUP has vetoed both of their attendance over an ongoing row about Drumcree, so officials will attend instead. Today's meeting is the first time Burnham and Swinney have met since Burnham's Labour conference speech, in which he singled out the SNP as the only opposition party he named. After Swinney claimed Burnham would be the last prime minister of the UK, Burnham said he was 'utterly determined to prove him wrong'.

The day's agenda

The morning is given over to Burnham chairing the national economic council meeting in Glasgow. At 11.30am, Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. In the afternoon, UK time, Ed Miliband attends a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Atlanta, United States.

The Glasgow meeting is the first of the day's engagements, and the Atlanta meeting is the last one listed in the agenda.