There is a better future for Scotland away from Westminster control

Since May and for the first time ever, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all led by First Ministers committed to a belief in a different constitutional future. A Celtic connection, established across these islands, bonded by the belief in a future away from Westminster. 

That historic moment may not yet have registered with Westminster, but rarely do the powers in Whitehall recognise seismic moments in real time. Moments where the political gravity shifts and distant institutions are left scrambling to understand why the ground has moved beneath their feet.

However, what that moment did commence was the inevitable final days of Keir Starmer. We now have a Westminster Prime Minister in Andy Burnham who has waxed lyrical on devolution. The new Labour Party leader has spoken plainly of how power must move away from London. Indeed, he has rightly identified the Westminster system as the central flaw in broken, Brexit Britain.

Andy Burnham and I can certainly agree on that, but that principle must mean a lot more than Westminster command moving to a “northern” outpost in Manchester.

It is important because Andy Burnham has raised the question of where power lies on these islands. That is a conversation that is well understood and underway across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but is entirely overdue in Westminster.

There is no doubt in my mind that that discussion begins with the constitutional future of Scotland. It begins with recognition of the simple concept that power over our future should rest in the hands of the people of Scotland.

As much as Andy Burnham is right to raise the question of where power lies, he himself cannot set the parameters of that discussion. In fact, the constitutional future of these islands is central and entirely necessary for that discussion to make any logical sense.

While some in the Westminster establishment may refuse to acknowledge that fact, or hope it can be dismissed with the flick of the wrist, that demand for constitutional change is not going away – with opinion polls showing independence to be the preferred position of the Scottish people.

Moreover, it is now the democratic will of Scotland’s parliament, in which a record number of pro-independence MSPs sit.

If Andy Burnham’s words on devolution and power are to hold any substance, then that democratic truth is something he cannot ignore.

It is in that context that his decision to drape Anas Sarwar in ermine robes, with a plush job for life in the House of Lords, is all the more disappointing. It is this type of Westminster cronyism and backroom dealings that has deeply damaged this new Labour government’s democratic credibility within its first few days.

A United Kingdom government – no matter the colour – that gives credence to an unelected legislature and that provides no path for constituent nations to leave, fundamentally undermines any democratic integrity it claims.

Our land, our waters and our people – they equip Scotland with the ability to develop one of the most successful independent countries in the world. That powerful idea burns bright and it is not something any slight of hand trick from Westminster, “No. 10 North” or otherwise, can extinguish.

I will work constructively with the new Prime Minister, but there will be no “off limits” when it comes to Scottish democracy and my ambitions for our people.