Lesley Riddoch: Nations and regions meeting exposes Labour's priorities

Furthermore, she is an envoy, even though that title’s generally reserved for representatives to foreign governments. Whit?

Westminster’s relations with Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are dickey at the best of times since all believe Westminster gives not a flying fart about them – so why confirm worst fears by sending an envoy?

Is everywhere outside London really a foreign country?

And is the First Minister of Scotland really level-pegging with 11 Metro Mayors? C’mon Keir.

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As heid bummer of Labour – born from the union movement – you should understand the importance of maintaining differentials. The Scottish Parliament, Government and First Minister have more powers than any regional mayor – and until we get independence, we’d like to keep it that way.

Scotland joined the Union as an equal with England, not an equal with Peterborough.

You should understand the sensitivity around that because devolved parliaments/assemblies were your party’s idea. Yet now, you sling the Celtic nations into a constitutional laundry basket with super-annuated councils that lack tax raising powers or their own welfare systems.

Clearly, in the eyes of Starmer’s Labour, Wales, Yorkshire, the Tees Valley, Scotland and Peterborough have a lot in common. They’re all not London. And that Beecher’s Brook of a barrier – between London and the rest of the UK, between us and them, between the centre and the peripheries, between what matters and what doesn’t matter, between the big news where they are and the wee news where we are – that massive almost insurmountable democratic barrier has just been given an extra row of hedging. By Labour. Nice one.

But perhaps a token of the leader’s bona fides is the selection of Sue Gray. Now it’s true that football managers can be sacked by one club and snapped up by the next. So why not a top civil servant turned spin doctor?

The Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Image: PA) Strange, though, that a woman criticised for being uncollaborative and controlling, is considered the right person to collaborate with the nations and regions of the UK. Or was that job simply invented hyper quick when Ms Gray got the bullet last weekend? Fa kens.

Indeed, fa kens anything about Ms Gray – we are not allowed to know if she’s being paid for this role or if the rumoured bung of a peerage has been accepted in lieu of a pay cheque.

If she does accept a peerage, Gray will be even more out of step with Scots, only 8% of whom back the current House of Lords set-up.

The SNP has not nominated representatives to the world’s second largest unelected chamber for more than 20 years. Of course, we’ve dealt with assorted Lords, Barons and Knights – “birkies” all. Most, like Sir Alister Jack are Tory but Scottish Labour has also succumbed to the strange allure of the ermine robe (looking at you Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale).

Maybe a title cuts some ice in London, but be warned Sue Gray. Up here, it makes you look like a pretentious git.

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So, trouble was already circling Starmer and his blessed Council of the Little People (along with his crash in poll ratings and the public’s preference for the last Tory government) … before he launched the latest bombshell.

Glasgow will be excluded from the tea and digestives during the first meeting of the Council of Nations and Regions in the presence of Sir Keir and Her Worshipful Envoyness Sue Gray. Worse, Edinburgh is not invited even though the city is hosting the event tomorrow.

Mayors of Combined Authorities (introduced by English Labour in 2009) can come. But leaders of same-sized, non-combined authorities in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland cannae.

So, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (pop 859,800) gets a seat at the table but Greater Glasgow with 1,028,220 disnae.

Perhaps, though, that’s a bad comparison. After all, the Combined Manchester Authority headed by Andy Burnham has a whopping population of 2,848,300.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves taking applause after she addressed the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. (Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire) But that’s only achieved by combining Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan Councils.

Manchester itself is smaller than Glasgow with 551,938 at the last census.

So, what makes the “combined authorities” (CAs) so special?

Nothing much according to the Guardian’s Simon Jenkins, who wants them abolished. “Metro mayorships are artificial creations whose regional geography rarely reflects any civic identity or pride. Towns and cities should have properly elected mayors. As instruments of local democracy, they are a farce.”

Amen.

In a “robust” letter to Scottish Secretary Ian Murray, Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken summed up the situation in a nutshell. “Three months ago, Glasgow’s six new Labour MPs promised communities they would be at the heart of this new [Labour] government. They’re not even in the same room.”

Her letter outlines Glasgow’s case for inclusion: “As a major UK metro area with around one-third of Scotland’s GDP, Glasgow is a leading member of the Core Cities and GCR engages extensively with other UK/English metro areas at both political and official level – and is active in international engagements such as with COP and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership forum.”

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All true.

But WHY THE HECK should the political leader of Britain’s third most populous city and fourth largest Metro region have to grovel for inclusion in an event that will, “bring forward a new era of stability, trust and partnership with businesses, investors, devolved governments and local leaders”, according to Keir Starmer?

I suppose he might say that Glasgow is neither a nation nor a region.

Indeed, the newspapers quote “a Labour spokesperson” saying: “Scottish Labour has made the case for elected mayors in Scotland, to replicate the successful metro mayor model across England. We are delighted the SNP in Glasgow seem to now agree.” Sweet.

So, unless devolved Scotland follows English practice and adopts the undebated proposals of Scottish Labour for elected Mayors or Provosts, our councils will be punished by exclusion from UK-wide structures? Yuk. And there’s a nasty wee rider: “The fact Susan Aitken doesn’t have confidence in John Swinney to speak for Scotland’s biggest city says a lot about the state of relations between the SNP government and their own councils.”

THESE grapes are so sour, the vine is withering.

Does the presence of Manchester, Liverpool, Tyne-Tees council leaders at Friday’s meeting constitute a vote of no confidence in Keir Starmer?

For crying in a bucket.

Is this what Scottish Labour are all about? Our way or the highway?

Do they think that winning one General Election north of the border gives them the right to call all the shots? Even though they weren’t elected to run Holyrood or Glasgow?

That’s more undemocratic than the Tories.

So, who came up with this Council that excludes Scottish councils?

The idea was announced just after the election, but the “envoy” announcement came last weekend as Labour’s new chief of staff took over.

Morgan McSweeney was born in the Irish Republic, is married to Imogen Walker, the newly elected Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley, and they live in rural Lanarkshire. In other words, this didn’t happen on the watch of a chinless wonder who rarely makes it north of the Watford gap. This is a truly bad idea rubber-stamped by someone who should know better.

Is it a deliberate snub or a clumsy mistake. John Swinney should demand to know.

Ian Murray, Keir Starmer or their envoy should endeavour to explain.