UK Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has said he will not interfere in Scottish Labour if he wins the race for the top job.
He said the party suffered a “catastrophic loss of trust” in Scotland and did badly in the general election because it had become too “London-centric”. He promised changes under his watch but vowed that new Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale would have “the autonomy she needs” to lead her party. Ms Dugdale was elected to the role earlier this month and has asked voters across the country to take a fresh look at the party. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Burnham said: “Labour needs to rebuild from the bottom up. We’ve had a catastrophic loss of trust here in Scotland. This party needs to change.”
Kezia Dugdale Asked for his solution to the party’s meltdown in Scotland, he told the Good Morning Scotland programme: “I think over many years people here … have looked at Labour and seen a London-centric party. They’ve seen a party that has become increasingly out of touch. “My take on it is that the people here haven’t left Labour; Labour has left them. We’ve got to face up to that and start making changes.” He went on: “I want our new leader Kezia to have the autonomy she needs to lead Scottish Labour forward. “I have already made a commitment that if I win this leadership election I would put emergency powers straight through our conference this year to get this balance right, to reflect the new arrangements coming through the Scotland Bill in the House of Commons on crucial issues like benefits. “The party here need to campaign on the issues that matter to the Scottish people without any interference from London.”
Who do you think should be the next Labour party leader? Andy Burnham Yvette Cooper Jeremy Corbyn Liz KendallMr Burnham also backed a debate within the party on the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system – while declaring his own view that now is not the time to “drop our defences”. It comes after new Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said he did not believe the case had been made for renewal of the Clyde-based deterrent and called for a referendum to be held on the issue. Ms Dugdale recently confirmed Scottish Labour will debate the future of the UK’s nuclear weapons at its next party conference. Mr Burnham told the programme: “Let’s have a debate. The party is having a debate as part of the various leadership contests that we’ve seen recently. “For my point of view, I’ve got to put my cards on the table as part of my bid to lead Labour and I just don’t think it’s right at this moment in time – given the insecurity that we’ve got in our world, the unpredictability – that Britain should take a step into the unknown and go it alone and unilaterally disarm. “I personally do not believe that would be the right thing to do. Nobody wants nuclear weapons, we should work to reduce our dependence on them and do that on a multilateral basis.”
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