New Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra to demand Holyrood decentralise powers in first conference speech

Michael Marra will use his first UK Labour conference address as Scottish Labour leader on Sunday to call for Holyrood to decentralise its powers, arguing that “too much power” is centralised in Scotland.

Addressing delegates in Liverpool, Marra is expected to say the Scottish Parliament has “hoarded money and control at the expense of Scotland’s communities”, and claim the Scottish economy would be £30 billion larger had its regions grown at the same pace as Manchester over the last decade. He will call for a new generation of devolution deals and for skills policy to be devolved to Scotland’s regions.

Marra will also say Scotland faces a “skills shortage crisis”, noting that half of employers report shortages while apprenticeship funding has fallen. “We have welders from the Philippines and South Africa working on the next generation of Scottish warships because not enough Scottish workers have the skills,” he is expected to say. “What a staggering failure of Holyrood’s centralised skills policy.”

He will attack the SNP’s planned reorganisation of local government, which he says “appears to centralise control and doesn’t devolve a single new power”.

In an interview with The Scottish Sun on Sunday, Marra vowed to “never let the SNP hide” from their record of failure and accused Reform UK Scotland of “mindless stunts”. Reform MSP Thomas Kerr has in turn accused Marra of “hypocrisy”.

Sources

• The Scottish Sun on Sunday — New Scots Labour leader blasts SNP & Reform for “mindless political stunts” (PA wire, embargoed 00:01 Sunday 27 September 2026)
• Perspective Media — Marra to call for more decentralisation of Holyrood powers at Labour conference (PA wire)