Prime Minister to attend British-Irish Council in Edinburgh
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is to attend his first meeting of the British-Irish Council, being held in Edinburgh on Friday.
The Labor leader will hold talks with Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris, Welsh First Minister Elund Morgan and Northern Irish First Minister Michelle O’Neill.
The summit – which is taking place 25 years after the first meeting in 1999 – is expected to focus on the climate crisis and the transition to clean energy.
It will also include some deputy leaders and senior government ministers as well as representatives of the Crown Dependents.
The council’s 42nd meeting will explore how to finance the so-called “just transition” for workers, as nations aim to move away from fossil fuel energy production toward green alternatives.
Sir Keir has named reforms to domestic finances and a shift to clean energy among his government’s six priorities,
He has vowed to work constructively with devolved administrations since taking office in July.
John Swinney said the meeting provided a forum “to discuss the biggest challenge facing the next 25 years” on climate change.
He said: “The need to share our knowledge, our efforts and our actions is no less urgent today than when the first British-Irish Council meeting was held in 1999.”
The council was formed as part of the Good Friday Agreement to strengthen working relations between nations.
Yet relations between Westminster and Holyrood are being tested Controversy over UK government plans to increase employers’ national insurance From April.
Holyrood ministers say Scotland, whose public sector is proportionally larger than the UK as a whole, needs more than £500m to offset the increased costs of public sector staff.
The Treasury is understood to have proposed a payment of around £300m. SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison said she would not be “complacent” with that figure.
The UK government says Holyrood is getting more money from the Treasury in the next financial year than ever before.
There is also tension between governments over a proposal to effectively scrap the Scottish budget Benefit limit for two children North of the border.
The UK-wide policy was originally introduced by the Conservative government in 2017 and has been kept in place by Labour.
This prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit for a third child, with some exemptions.
Swinney said he wanted to end the “heinous” two-child limit “because Britain’s Labor government has failed to do so to date”.
However, they will need help from the Department for Work and Pensions to create a system that will allow Holyrood to provide funding to the 15,000 affected families in Scotland.
Sir Keir said he was committed to tackling child poverty, but said abolishing the cap was not a “silver bullet”.
