ELECTED provosts in Scottish cities “just makes sense,” Labour Andy Burnham has said during a visit north of the border. 

The Greater Manchester Mayor said it could lead to greater collaboration between businesses and cities in Scotland and England without the need for national governments.

Plans for directly elected provosts were one of the central recommendations in a report released by Gordon Brown on the future of the UK at the end of last year.

They have not yet been formally adopted by Labour. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has said they are currently under consideration by the party.

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Both men were in Edinburgh's Central Hall on Thursday night to take part in the Alliance for Radical Democratic Change rally in Edinburgh, organised by Mr Brown's thinktank, Our Scottish Future. 

Speaking to the Press Association as he visited Alexander Dennis’s Larbert site on Friday to see the first 50 new “Bee Network” buses for Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham said he could sympathise with the SNP’s anxiety over the reach of the government in Westminster.

“I’ve had my frustrations and to be honest with you, I feel like I understand the sentiments in Scotland better because we all have our frustrations about the way Westminster treats the rest of the UK, the regions in England but also Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“I think people may not realise in Scotland how much we feel the same in the north of England.

“We saw it in the pandemic, the way Greater Manchester was treated by the Westminster Government. They feel they can do things to us that they wouldn’t dare do in London and the South East.

“That’s what’s got to change. Personally, I think we’ve got to rewire Britain to make it better, and that includes more devolution to us and to Scotland.”

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Mr Burnham said: “If I could pick up the phone to the elected mayors or provost of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Dundee, we’d all start working more.”

It would result in greater collaboration between businesses in Scotland and England without the need for national governments, he added.

The Mayor’s intervention came as Humza Yousaf criticised Mr Sarwar and Scottish Labour for staying silent over what he described as Tory attempts to “undermine devolution.”

The SNP leader made the comment as he shared a video of Mark Drakeford criticising the UK Government’s demand that Scotland excludes glass from the Deposit Return Scheme. 

Speaking to BBC Scotland on Thursday, the Welsh First Minister questioned the use of the UK Internal Markets Act to significantly alter the plans agreed by ministers in Edinburgh. 

He said the use of the legislation - designed to ensure frictionless trade across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after Brexit - raised “very serious questions”.

Wales is planning on pushing ahead with their own DRS which would include glass. 

However, in their letter to the Scottish Government last Friday, the UK Government said that all schemes across the UK "will need to align on which containers are in scope."

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This means Wales, like Scotland, will almost certainly need to exclude glass to obtain an exemption from the UK Internal Market Act. 

Mr Drakeford said he was “considering the implications” of the decision for the Welsh Government.

The Herald:

He told the BBC: “We are considering the implications for our scheme, which includes glass and always did.

“It was part of the consultation we held with the NI executive and the UK Government.

“At the moment, glass is in our scheme and that’s the way we expect it to stay.

“We jointly published a document with the UK Government in which they recognised that while they had decided not to include glass, we had and they signed that document with us.

“I would dispute the use of the IMA for these purposes and if they were to invoke it, there would be very serious questions for the UK Government.

“Why so late in the day?

“Why are they doing this now when right up until now they have recognised the fact that we were going to include glass, because that’s what the consultation said we would do?

“The English Government is the outlier here."

Mr Yousaf tweeted: “I expect the Tories to undermine devolution at every turn, but at FMQs I challenged Scot Labour to stand up for devolution, as their Welsh colleagues are doing, nothing but silence from them. Another demonstration of how Labour in Scotland have lost their way.”