Why Andy Burnham can succeed on rough sleeping where the SNP have failed – Jackie Baillie

Two years ago, I proudly stood alongside our 37 newly elected Scottish Labour MPs outside 10 Downing Street, with Labour having returned to power at Westminster for the first time since 2010. I must admit, I did not expect to be watching a new Prime Minister walk up that same street two years after that warm summer’s day in July 2024.

Clearly, not everything has gone to plan since then. It was never the intention for Keir Starmer to be standing down just two years into his premiership, but his decision to resign is the right one.

The truth is, there were too many missteps, and frankly, people do not feel they are seeing the change we promised fast enough. I understand that.

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Andy Burnham announced his government's plan to 'finally end long-term rough sleeping across the UK at the earliest opportunity' on his first day as Prime Minister (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

Dealing with child poverty

Of course, this Labour government has had some significant milestones – record budget settlements and additional funding of £12 billion for the Scottish Parliament, the New Deal for Working People significantly improved worker’s rights, the two-child benefit cap scrapped and GB Energy headquartered in Aberdeen

Those changes alone will bring big benefits for people right across Scotland, and then there’s nearly half a million kids in the UK lifted out of poverty.

So, while we reflect on those achievements, it is now time to look to the future with a new Prime Minister in Andy Burnham. I know Andy is passionate about devolution and lifting up all those parts of our country which have been left behind during 14 years of Tory austerity.

He has promised to be a Prime Minister who will represent all parts of the UK, with Scotland at the heart of that. I am looking forward to working with him as he begins his time in office and wish him well in his efforts.

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Burnham’s first big decision

In his first speech as Prime Minister outside Number 10 on Monday, he made clear his priority to end rough sleeping in the UK. In Scotland alone, more than 33,000 households were assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness, including 14,371 children, in the year to September 2025.

It works out as a household becoming homeless in Scotland every 15 minutes, or 39 children in Scotland becoming homeless every day.

But rough sleeping is the most extreme form of homelessness. In the first term of the Scottish Labour government, we ended the need to sleep rough in Scotland but the figures have gone the wrong way ever since. That is shocking indictment of the record of the SNP after 19 years in office.

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For far too long, SNP politicians have been more interested in point-scoring and grandstanding than in delivering for the good of the people of Scotland.

I truly hope that they will have heard Andy’s speech this week and will commit to working with him to help us tackle the scourge of homelessness in our country once and for all.

We owe it to those sleeping rough now and to future generations to come together, rise above the politics of grievance, and work together to help those struggling and make Scotland better.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health