Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to make his first major public visit to Scotland this week.
The SNP has invited Prime Minister Andy Burnham to their annual conference, as he is set to make his first major public visit to Scotland.
It is understood the PM plans to travel north on Friday for an event that will focus on devolution. There are reports Mr Burnham is keen to call for powers to be pushed out of Holyrood.
However, his visit will clash with the SNP’s three-day annual gathering in Aberdeen, which gets underway on Thursday. The visit will also be on the eve of Mr Swinney’s keynote address to SNP conference.
The SNP have now invited Mr Burnham to attend their conference while he is in Scotland.
Since Mr Burnham became Prime Minister, nationalists say he is becoming “defined by Scottish independence”, particularly after he focused on the issue in his own conference speech.
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He also caused a frenzy amongst pro-independence politicians after saying Scotland was in the exact same situation as Northern Ireland when it came to independence. Northern Ireland has a constitutional arrangement that allows it to leave the UK, while Scotland does not.
It also comes just weeks after Mr Swinney attended an independence summit in Cardiff with the nationalist leaders of Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
However, Scottish Labour says Mr Burnham’s move this week shows he is “taking the fight to the SNP”.
A party insider said: “This is a smart move by the Prime Minister, taking the fight right to the heart of the SNP during their conference this week.
“Labour has a coherent and positive plan for regional devolution in Scotland - it is thought out, it is working elsewhere in the UK, and it delivers.”
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Mr Burnham’s intervention on devolution comes as the SNP government carries out a three-month consultation on major reforms to public services. This includes drastically reducing the number of NHS health boards to just two on the mainland, and a major overhaul of local government.
Keith Brown MSP, the SNP’s deputy leader, said: “The SNP would like to invite Andy Burnham to SNP conference as part of his visit to Scotland.
“The British Prime Minister has agreed it is for the people of Scotland to decide our own future and there is no better time for the leader of unionism and the leader of Scottish independence to further that basic democratic principle.
“Andy Burnham made Scottish independence the focus of his conference speech with his time in Downing Street fast becoming defined by the UK’s constitutional future - it is the central question on these islands.
“SNP conference is the perfect and natural place for Andy Burnham to set out the logical extension of his words - an agreed legal process.”