Murray: Burnham must reform the UK to help Scotland thrive

Liberal Democrat Scottish Affairs spokesperson Susan Murray MP has today said that the new Prime Minister must work with opposition parties and the devolved administrations to reform the UK, as she laid out her party’s plans for changing how we do politics, increasing cooperation and partnership across the nations of the UK.  

Ms Murray highlighted the need to strengthen principles of federalism and pointed out that these principles would ensure every corner of the UK sees a fair distribution of resources based on respective needs.  

Liberal Democrats also want to see the creation of a new dispute resolution process to maturely resolve differences between administrations.  

Liberal Democrats want to make the UK work better by:

• Creating a UK Constitutional Convention, with the aim of drafting a new written Federal Constitution that sets out the powers of government at each tier.

• Securing cooperation and agreement through common frameworks and a new dispute resolution process, sharing power, resolving differences maturely between administrations and delivering better governance.

• Improving joint ministerial working on cross-cutting policies, such as industrial strategy.

• Removing the ability for the UK Parliament to unilaterally change the powers of the devolved parliaments or pass laws in their areas of responsibility.

• Retaining the Barnett Formula to adjust spending allocations across the UK and protect the individual nations’ budgets from external shocks.

• Establishing national and local citizens assemblies to ensure that the public are fully engaged in finding solutions to the greatest challenges we face.

• Fixing the broken electoral system by introducing proportional representation to give everyone an equal vote and an equal voice in our democracy

Susan Murray said:  

“All across Scotland, too many people feel powerless and excluded.  

“That comes down to more than just the chaos and corruption of a few individuals. It’s the failure of a broken political system.  

“Andy Burnham needs to recognise this and take action to reform the UK and help Scotland thrive.

“We need a constitution fit for our times. It should be a constitution guided by principles of federalism, democratic engagement, liberal values and respect for every part of the UK.  

“The constant tussles between the Scottish and UK governments are tedious, limiting and self-inflicted- they are holding us back. There needs to be a much greater focus on partnership and cooperation so that we can actually get stuff done.  

“Whether it’s our NHS, our economy or our schools, we need this kind of big thinking to meet the challenges our country faces. Scottish Liberal Democrats have a real vision for how we can restore faith in our politics and democracy, and make it work for everyone.”