SCOTLAND’S first minister has warned Andy Burnham that the four nations of the UK are “falling apart.”

John Swinney criticised the Labour PM’s for going on a “lecturing tour” of the country rather than a “listening tour.”

The SNP leader said that May’s election results, where his party won its fifth consecutive term in office at Holyrood, showed that “we have got a United Kingdom that is falling apart.”

He said: “We’ve got a Scottish Parliament with a larger number of independence supporting and independence referendum-supporting MSPs than ever before, a Plaid Cymru government in Wales and Sinn Fein occupying the office of First Minister of Northern Ireland.

“That indicates to me a United Kingdom that is in a perilous state of affairs.”

The Scottish government recently published a draft Bill to hold a second independence referendum.

Mr Swinney added it is completely unsustainable for Mr Burnham to dismiss his call for a referendum on Scottish independence, as well as demands for a vote on a united Ireland.

Making his first visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister last week Mr Burnham was clear that a referendum on Irish unification is “off the table,” which Mr Swinney said showed that he was engaged in a “a bit of a lecturing tour.” 

He said that “the same issues apply here in Scotland … yet the Prime Minister decides he has the right to ignore that.”

A Westminster government source said that Mr Burnham had visited Scotland in his first week in office, saying that he “looks forward to visiting again soon.”