Gordon McKee, Labour MP for Glasgow South, argues that three decades of dysfunctional governance — inherited from a Tory carve-up — is costing Glasgow billions, and that Andy Burnham's path to Downing Street points to the solution.

If you grew up in the West of Scotland in second half of the 20th century, you will remember Strathclyde Regional Council.

It was at one point the largest local authority in all of Europe, but with the stroke of a Conservative ministerial pen in 1996, it was abolished and split up into a dozen local authorities.

The boundaries of those dozen authorities were not drawn up by an independent body, but by the ministers themselves and remain with us today.

Strathclyde had its flaws, but it recognised something important that we have spent the last 30 years pretending is not true: Glasgow does not stop at the boundary of Glasgow City Council.

In parts of my constituency in Glasgow’s Southside, the roads are split in two. One side in the same local authority as the city centre, the other sharing their council with Biggar, near the Scottish Borders.

Gordon McKee Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest

A few years after Strathclyde was abolished, responsibility for local government passed to the new Scottish Parliament.

Ever since, an opportunity to rethink how power was distributed within Scotland has been there for the taking.

Instead, a system designed by Conservative ministers in the mid-1990s has survived almost completely untouched.

I believe it is holding Glasgow back.

Tomorrow, Britain will have a new prime minister in Andy Burnham.

He has reached the highest office in the land not through climbing the greasy pole in the Houses of Parliament, but almost uniquely through a track record of delivery leading........

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