Douglas Alexander Keeps Scotland Job as Burnham Rebuffs Swinney’s Wishes

Douglas Alexander walked out of 10 Downing Street just before 11pm on Monday still holding his old job. Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, had kept him on as secretary of state for Scotland. Hours earlier, Scotland’s first minister had told reporters he wanted that post scrapped altogether.

It was one of the few things that did not change in a reshuffle that swept out three of Sir Keir Starmer’s most senior ministers, and Lord Mandelson besides. Burnham built his campaign for the top job around a promise to shift power out of Westminster, what he has called the “biggest rebalancing” of power in modern British history. His first move touching Scotland kept the exact arrangement John Swinney had just asked him to tear up.

A Reshuffle That Left Scotland’s Man in Place

Burnham only returned to the House of Commons a month ago, winning the Makerfield by-election after quitting Parliament in 2017 to become mayor of Greater Manchester. His opening reshuffle as prime minister still reached deep into the government he inherited. Senior ministers Rachel Reeves, David Lammy and Peter Kyle all confirmed they were leaving their posts within hours of the handover.

• Rachel Reeves – confirmed she was leaving her post as the reshuffle got under way.
• David Lammy – also departed the top team Burnham inherited from Starmer.
• Peter Kyle – among the senior ministers confirmed to be exiting government.
• Lord Mandelson – sacked over the depth of his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Alexander was the exception. He arrived at Downing Street shortly after 10pm on Monday and left roughly an hour later, still Secretary of State for Scotland, a job he first held nearly two decades ago.

He announced it himself. In a social media post confirming the news, Alexander called it “an honour to be asked to continue my work as Secretary of State for Scotland” and pledged to be “Scotland’s voice around the Cabinet table”. He credited Burnham’s stated wish to decentralise power for a reason it would “chime with Scottish sentiment as much as the rest of the UK.”

Why Does Swinney Want the Scotland Office Gone?

Swinney wants Holyrood to negotiate directly with Downing Street, without a Scottish secretary acting as go-between. Speaking at Bute House, his official Edinburgh residence, hours before Alexander’s reappointment was confirmed, Scotland’s first minister told the Press Association he did not want Alexander to return at all, and that he would rather deal with the prime minister one on one.

It was a pointed thing to say just hours before Burnham made the opposite choice. Swinney had described the change of prime minister as an opportunity for relations that he said had “deteriorated over the last year,” but insisted any reset had to be “anchored on the principle of mutual respect.”

The friction predates this week. Alexander had previously accused Swinney’s government of running an analogue first minister in a digital world over the slow rollout of NHS Scotland technology. Swinney’s language three weeks earlier, when Burnham first pitched a devolution plan as a prospective prime minister, was even blunter: “rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job creating powers.”

By the time Alexander’s reappointment was confirmed, Swinney had shifted tone. He congratulated Burnham on social media, called the appointment a “significant moment,” and said the new prime minister was “right that Westminster has failed Scotland.” He said he still wanted “the right to choose a fresh start with independence,” alongside “constructive conversations” on the cost of living.

The Holyrood Arithmetic Behind the Pressure

Both men have reasons to want something to show for this relationship. The Scottish Parliament election on 7 May left the SNP short of a majority and handed Scottish Labour its worst result in the history of Holyrood, the same result that put Starmer’s leadership in question in the first place.

According to a parliamentary research briefing from the House of Commons Library, the SNP finished seven seats short of an outright Holyrood majority, leaving Swinney’s government reliant on opposition votes to pass a budget. Reform UK’s 17 seats, won entirely through the regional list, marked the first time the party has held Holyrood seats at all. The Conservatives lost their status as the main opposition in the tie between Labour and Reform.

Swinney fell short of the majority he wanted to strengthen his case for a second independence vote. Labour finished level with a party that barely existed in Scottish politics two years earlier. Neither leader walked out of Thursday’s count in May feeling secure, which is part of why a call between Bute House and Downing Street mattered before either side said a word.

A Second Act for a Blair-Era Survivor

Alexander is no stranger to the brief. He first served as Scottish secretary from 2006 to 2007, having been elected to represent Paisley and Renfrewshire South in 1997 and served as Labour’s campaign coordinator during its 2001 general election win.

He lost his seat to the SNP’s Mhairi Black in 2015, in the same election that all but wiped Labour off the Scottish map, and spent nine years outside Parliament before returning at the 2024 general election. He came back to the Scotland brief in September last year, after Ian Murray was sacked in a government reshuffle, having spent the months before that as Starmer’s Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security.

The North Sea Becomes the First Test

Energy is where Swinney’s ask turns concrete. He wants Holyrood, not Westminster, deciding whether Scotland’s oil fields keep pumping. He told the Press Association that Scotland’s energy should be “in Scotland’s hands,” adding that “the energy wealth of Scotland can be used for the benefit of the people of Scotland.” He also called for the Scottish Parliament to receive greater economic powers, describing that as “vital.”

On the two live fields, Jackdaw and Rosebank, Swinney is not committing either way yet. He wants climate compatibility tests run before Holyrood backs or opposes further development, a middle position that satisfies nobody in particular.

The Scottish Greens have already staked out theirs. They want Burnham to rule out new North Sea drilling entirely, to “invest in communities” instead, and to deliver what they called a “genuinely just transition” away from oil and gas.

Reform and the Tories Set a Price for Cooperation

Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord wished Burnham well but wanted more than good wishes back. He said Scotland needed action, not “empty promises.”

His party now sits level with Labour at Holyrood, and his position on energy runs opposite to the Greens’. In a discussion hosted by the Institute for Government before the election, Offord had argued that continued oil and gas production remains necessary for energy security, framing any shift away from fossil fuels as something that should be gradual rather than immediate.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay struck a different note. Weeks before Burnham reached Downing Street, Findlay said the then prospective prime minister “needs to flesh out what new powers he’s actually talking about,” and warned that Scots would be “instinctively alarmed” at handing the SNP more control given what he called its “astonishing record of failure,” pointing to devolved social security spending as an example.

Where the three positions actually split:

• John Swinney wants energy and economic powers devolved to Holyrood, with drilling decisions on hold pending climate tests.
• Malcolm Offord wants continued North Sea production for energy security and opposes giving the SNP any more control.
• Russell Findlay wants any new powers spelled out in detail before backing further devolution to a government he accuses of mismanagement.

Sarwar’s Bet on a Fresh Start

Anas Sarwar has more riding on Burnham’s success than almost anyone else in Scottish politics. The Scottish Labour leader called for Starmer to quit back in February, telling reporters in Glasgow that “too many mistakes” had been made during his premiership, months before most of Westminster caught up.

He stayed on as leader after May’s result, even though he admitted at the count that his party had not won the argument it made. On Monday, he said he was confident Burnham would deliver the change “our country so desperately needs,” calling for politics to “re-empower those communities that have been forgotten about and left behind” and to “re-industrialise every part of our great country.”

Minority rule is now the pattern on both sides of the border. Swinney governs Holyrood without a majority, and Cardiff Bay’s Labour administration faces similar arithmetic, a dynamic that had already taught Westminster hard lessons in minority rule before Starmer even left office.

Burnham has promised to set out measures giving people “breathing space” on the cost of living as early as Tuesday, his first policy act as prime minister. Whether that reaches Scotland any differently than the reshuffle did is the next thing Bute House will be watching for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Andy Burnham become prime minister without a general election?

Britain’s parliamentary system lets a governing party swap leaders, and therefore prime ministers, without a national vote. Burnham won the Labour leadership unopposed after Starmer announced his resignation, then was invited to form a government once Starmer formally resigned to the King. The next UK general election does not have to be held until 2029.

Could Scotland hold a second independence referendum under Burnham?

Only with Westminster’s consent. A legally binding referendum needs a Section 30 order transferring temporary power to Holyrood, the same mechanism used before the 2014 vote. Swinney has called securing that route a “key priority” for his government, but Burnham has not committed to granting one.

When must the UK hold its next general election?

By law, no later than 2029, five years after the 2024 election that first brought Labour to power. Burnham can serve as prime minister without facing voters in a UK-wide election until then, even though local and devolved contests will test his party well before that date.

What happened to Peter Mandelson in the reshuffle?

Mandelson was sacked as Burnham built his top team, after new details emerged about the extent of his relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. He was one of several senior figures from the Starmer years dropped within hours of the handover.