Indyref2: Andy Burnham rules out new vote on independence

It is understood he spoke to around 25 of Labour's 36 Scottish MPs on Wednesday afternoon in Westminster.

Sources at the meeting told the paper that Mr Burnham was "crystal clear that it is not something he is going to be considering".

Another MP said that Burnham "made the point that he's not a fan of referendums, isn't going to be granting one, and it's not something he is willing to consider".

During an "ask me anything" session on social media platform Reddit on Friday, Mr Burnham was asked how he would like his relationship with the devolved governments to work, and how they would interact with his plans for devolution.

He responded: "I would like it to be as collaborative and pragmatic as possible.

"I want the same offer to power up places to be available in all parts of the UK.

"I will speak soon to the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to agree a positive way of working to this end."

Mr Burnham has pledged to increase devolution across the UK with plans for a "Number 10 North" to redistribute power. In a speech earlier in the week, the former Manchester mayor said people in Dundee and Bangor "feel just as distant from Holyrood and the Senedd as they do from Westminster".

"Its job will be to make power flow into places like Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Paisley and Easterhouse, not hold it back," he said.

Under a strategy agreed by party members last year, had the SNP won more than 65 seats at May's Holyrood election this would have been taken by the Scottish Government as a mandate to start negotiations for a second vote on independence.

However, while they were returned to Holyrood as the largest party, they were seven seats short of the threshold.

But in the immediate aftermath of the vote, Mr Swinney insisted his party still had a mandate for a second independence referendum.

He argued that the record 15 Scottish Green MSPs elected meant there were "more pro-independence politicians in Holyrood than at any point in the history of the Scottish Parliament".

SNP MSP David Linden accused Mr Burnham of "disrespecting Scottish democracy" before he had "even started measuring the curtains in Downing Street".

He added: “Andy Burnham has promised to break with the past and he must be true to that - Scotland voted for a referendum, Scotland voted for more powers to be in our hands. Those promises must be met."

Green MSP Patrick Harvie hit out at Mr Burnham. He said: "Scotland has just elected the largest pro-independence majority in the history of our Parliament. If that's not a mandate, what is? It's a simple question and one that no Labour leader has been able to answer.

"Andy Burnham is perfectly entitled to argue against Scottish independence. What he shouldn't do is block the people of Scotland from having the choice.

"Refusing to even let the question be asked flies in the face of democracy. Our future should be decided by the people who live in Scotland, not by politicians in London."

There was a row shortly after the election when the Scottish Government said Sir Keir Starmer had agreed to hold talks on an independence referendum with John Swinney.

In a statement released after a phone call between the two men, a spokesperson for Mr Swinney said it was "particularly welcome that the Prime Minister agreed to meet next month to discuss a referendum on independence".

No 10 then pushed back against the claim, while one Scottish Labour source even accused the First Minister of "lying to the public".

Any independence referendum needs the agreement of Westminster.

The Supreme Court made that unambiguously clear in 2022 when Nicola Sturgeon asked the justices to rule on whether the Scottish Parliament could legislate for a consultative referendum without Westminster's permission.

The court unanimously concluded that it could not, because the Union is a reserved matter.