Andy Burnham, John Swinney and Kemi Badenoch reveal their differing priorities
Holyrood’s powers, ‘deeper’ devolution, independence
Kemi Badenoch came to Edinburgh last week amid claims she was planning a review of devolution and may want to strip the Scottish Parliament of some of its powers.
The speculation followed a briefing to the Scottish Daily Mail by a senior member of Ms Badenoch's team. And despite saying there were "no plans" to take powers away, the Tory leader came close to confirming the story by adding later: "Maybe we need a review", saying it was "something we wanted our MSPs to be looking at" and claiming there were “certain problems” which required “additional intervention” like the SNP using devolved planning powers to "interfere" in proposals for a UK-wide expansion of nuclear power, which falls into Westminster's remit.
That sounds enough to ring alarm bells about devolution if she were ever to become Prime Minister.
But Ms Badenoch's visit to the Royal Bank accelerator hub for entrepreneurs in Princes Street last Thursday was a bit of a sideshow compared with Andy Burnham's speech in Motherwell the following day and John Swinney's speech to the SNP conference in Aberdeen on Saturday.
The Prime Minister's pitch on his trip north of the border was all about the importance of “deeper” devolution within Scotland, pushing power out to communities and regions.
He called Scotland “one of the most centralised devolved administrations in Europe” and spoke about visiting a project in Glasgow which tackles poverty and empowers communities and how it had inspired some of the work he did as Mayor of Greater Manchester.
And he said he wanted to work together with John Swinney to a similar purpose, rather than scoring political points.
Mr Swinney’s speech did not respond directly to the Prime Minister’s, but instead repeated the claim that Westminster "doesn't get" Scotland.
He said communities would be empowered as part of the Scottish Government's plan to reform public services and reorganise local government and announced the “most sophisticated” campaign for independence ever undertaken by the SNP.
The three leaders each made clear their priorities, but Andy Burnham might struggle to detect any sign of support for his plan to “do things differently”.