This year, even Andy Burnham is invited to the Scottish National party conference. But by the time John Swinney stands up to address members on Saturday afternoon in Aberdeen to reinvigorate the case for a second independence referendum, his party may regret giving the UK prime minister so much prominence in the conference buildup. Burnham is expected to visit Scotland on Friday – the middle of the event – in a thinly veiled attempt to overshadow the SNP gathering.
While he will be in a different venue, the former Manchester mayor’s presence in Scotland will loom large over the event. Since taking over at No 10 in July, Burnham has largely avoided direct confrontations with his political rivals, rarely attacking Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch. But he has taken a different approach with the Scottish first minister.
The SNP leader was the only politician from a rival party, apart from Margaret Thatcher, that Burnham mentioned in his keynote address to the Labour party conference last month. He reflected on Swinney’s prediction that he would be the last prime minister of the UK at a meeting of separatist parties Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to mark the first time all three devolved parliaments were governed by nationalists. Swinney inadvertently did so on the day Burnham’s father died.
I relay it because I want you to know how it made me feel. Utterly determined to prove him wrong.” Beyond ruling out a second independence referendum, recent British prime ministers have often paid little attention to Scottish internal affairs. Burnham has already said there is “no clear consensus” for another vote.
But unlike his predecessors, he has decided to take on the SNP by loudly make the case for the union on Scottish soil. Burnham presents a new challenge for the SNP as they seek to re-energise the case for Scottish independence. Swinney has said he wants a new vote before 2031.
The separatists have grown used to facing off against rightwing, pro-Brexit governments in London during two decades in power in Holyrood, making it easier to argue that Scotland’s interests have been dismissed. Burnham’s devolution agenda, openness to exploring a return to the European Union and £2 bus fares are harder to confront. Even among SNP voters, he is popular.
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