Devolved leaders hail improved relationships with UK Government under Labour

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Mr Swinney said afterwards he had “made no secret of the fact that relationships between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government today are incomparably better than they were immediately before the general election”. Michelle O’Neill, the Northern Ireland First Minister, stressed “it is how you disagree that is important”, as she complained: “I think the tenure of the Tories in government was one of disrespect, one that drove an austerity agenda that decimated our public services, one that very much left people behind.” With Labour having worked to improve relationships with the devolved governments, Ms O’Neill added: “I welcome the fact that there is a determination for a reset.” While she added it is “early days” and that relationships will be “tested of course over time”, the Sinn Fein politician added she believes there is a “genuine willingness” to work between the parties. We raised that today with them, and we’ll see what happens.” Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan said: “You would expect me to say it has been a much better relationship as a Labour politician, and it genuinely has.” She added that the fact the Prime Minister had taken part in the BIC talks for the first time since 2007 “indicates an eagerness to make sure we co-operate”. “We’ve had a very good British-Irish Council, it’s the 25th year of the British-Irish Council, a council that was set up under the structure of the Good Friday Agreement and indeed the first time in many years, I think since Gordon Brown, that we’ve had a British Prime Minister attend a working part of the council,” he said.