First minister

Andy Burnham, on this tour of the country, went to locations like Sheffield, Wolverhampton and even Port Talbot in Wales to listen to voters' concerns regarding the cost of living crisis, but didn't travel there.

Instead, what he has done is summoned the leaders of each of the devolved nations to the National Economic Council in October, where he will host a summit of First Ministers, Wales, Scotland, the north of Ireland, to make sure, in his words, that every leader is signed up to good jobs in every community.

Interestingly, both this announcement of his summit and his failure to visit Scotland come in a week where it has been found that Burnham is the most popular politician in Scotland, according to Servatian polls.

He boasts a higher favourability rating than the First Minister, with 37% approving of Burnham's first few months in office compared to 33% of John Swinney.

In recent times, we've had very significant assembly elections in Scotland and Wales.

And for the first time, we have a first minister in Wales who is pro-Welsh independence.

with Plaid Cymru, and in Scotland, obviously the SNP have the First Minister, so you have two pro-independence, two nationalist First Ministers, and there's no doubt that Andy Burnham had his eye on that.

He actually referenced Brexit and the Scottish independence referendum in his comments, and I'm mindful too that he made his comments before he actually met with the political leaders.

I know that obviously Mary Lou Macdonald and Michelle O'Neill would have made it very clear to him that he has a clear responsibility under the Good Friday Agreement, to responsibly prepare the ground and then to call that referendum.

I'll start with you, for instance.

To some extent, I kind of see the dynamic and the conversations that have been had amongst First Ministers, including the dynamic between the Prime Minister and Premier Ford, as helpful here.

It's an example of the Federation working in real time during the moment it probably needs to do something.

that the most.