PM to attend British-Irish Council in Edinburgh

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is to be his archetypal gathering of the British-Irish Council, which is being hosted successful Edinburgh connected Friday.

The Labour person volition clasp talks with Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris, Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Northern Irish First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

The acme - which comes 25 years aft the archetypal gathering successful 1999 - is expected to absorption connected the clime situation and transitioning to cleanable energy.

It volition besides beryllium attended by immoderate lawman leaders and elder authorities ministers, arsenic good arsenic representatives of crown dependencies.

The 42nd gathering of the assembly volition research however to concern a alleged "just transition" for workers, arsenic nations purpose to determination from fossil substance vigor accumulation to greener alternatives.

Sir Keir has named improving household finances and a modulation to cleanable vigor among his government's six priorities.

He has vowed to enactment constructively with devolved administrations since taking bureau successful July.

John Swinney said the gathering provided a forum connected clime alteration "to sermon the top situation facing the adjacent 25 years".

He added: "The request to stock our knowledge, our efforts and our actions is nary little urgent contiguous than it was erstwhile the archetypal British-Irish Council gathering was held successful 1999."

The assembly was created arsenic portion of the Good Friday Agreement to fortify moving relations betwixt nations.

Yet relations betwixt Westminster and Holyrood are being tested by a row implicit the UK government's plans to summation employers' National Insurance from April.

Holyrood ministers accidental Scotland, which has a proportionally larger nationalist assemblage than the UK arsenic a whole, needs much than £500m to compensate for accrued nationalist assemblage staffing costs.

It is understood the Treasury has projected a outgo of astir £300m. SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison said she would not "settle" for that figure.

The UK authorities says Holyrood is receiving much wealth than ever earlier from the Treasury successful the adjacent fiscal year.

There is besides hostility betwixt the governments implicit a Scottish Budget connection to efficaciously scrap the two-child benefits cap northbound of the border.

The UK-wide argumentation was primitively introduced successful 2017 by the Conservative authorities and has been kept successful spot by Labour.

It prevents parents from claiming cosmopolitan recognition oregon kid taxation recognition for a 3rd child, with a fewer exemptions.

Swinney said helium wanted to extremity the "heinous" two-child bounds "because the UK Labour authorities has to day failed to bash so".

However, helium volition necessitate assistance from the Department for Work and Pensions to make a strategy that volition let Holyrood to supply backing to the families of 15,000 affected families successful Scotland.

Sir Keir said helium was committed to tackling kid poverty, but said scrapping the headdress was not a "silver bullet".