TONY Blair spent more time "looking out the window" than paying attention during meetings with devolved governments, Jim Wallace has said.
The LibDem peer – a former MP and deputy first minister who lead the then-Scottish Executive due to the illness and death of Donald Dewar – told how the former PM would tune out during meetings of the body supposed to help UK leaders work together.
The Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) was established to get heads of government from London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast together and make devolution work.
But, appearing before the Scottish Affairs Committee, Wallace said little had been achieved during sessions he attended, saying: "I remember meeting in Edinburgh, in Cardiff and by the time it came to the third meeting in Downing Street, I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that Tony Blair spent most of the time looking out the window.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn has turned out to be just another Tony Blair
"But actually, nothing much was achieved at them and nobody could really understand the point of them."
The cross-party committee is probing the relationship between the UK and Scottish Governments.
Wallace told members the failure to "understand the point" of JMC sessions had caused them to "fall away".
However, these were brought back after the SNP took control at Holyrood.
The ascent of that party, the committee heard, had triggered changes in inter-governmental relations.
Former First Minister Jack McConnell told how, in the early days of devolution, those working at senior positions at Westminster and Holyrood had been friends and colleagues.
Some of the initial cohort at the Scottish Parliament held Westminster constituencies and the impact of having a Labour leadership at both institutions meant “personalities” and “informal” discussions could achieve more than formal channels, he said..
In the run-up to the 2014 referendum, Sir Peter Housden, ex-permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, said though tensions had risen, civil servants had continued to work well. He said: "At senior level they could not have been more tense on occasions but nevertheless there were important channels of communication that were being held open.
"I saw it as my responsibility, with officials in the UK Government, to keep those channels open.
"This is a lot about how senior people conduct themselves in these sort of spaces and remember their broader commitment to civil service principles.
"I felt that was very well adhered to on both sides of the equation."
McConnell and Wallace – who both support the creation of a UK Council of Ministers – questioned the continued existence of the Scotland Office.
However, former Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said the office had helped mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax. The ex-LibDem MP said he and David Mundell had gone round each council in Scotland asking "how much extra money" they needed to cope with the measure before "pressurising" then-Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander for a budgetary uplift.
Moore said this could not have been achieved "if it had been left to the DWP versus the Scottish Government".
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