As I sat in the first Plaid Cymru conference since the party won the Welsh election and started leading the Welsh government, I heard things I had never heard before. I have been to a lot of Plaid conferences and not once have I heard people being really positive about a UK Labour leader. But there was no mistaking it: the Welsh nationalist party feels that Andy Burnham is a man it can work with.
When I interviewed Welsh first minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, he indicated he was hopeful – in a way he never was under Keir Starmer – that there was a prime minister who had a genuine desire to give Wales meaningful concessions when it comes to additional powers. In his speech in Llandudno, the first minister said that the prime minister had “looked me in the eyes and promised he would not [bypass the Senedd]”. He said he had written to Burnham with a “formal ask” for “a new deal for Wales”.
There were five demands from the Welsh government to Westminster: powers over policing and justice, powers over rail infrastructure, control over the crown estate, “fiscal fairness” and control of welfare. Seems like a pretty long shopping list, right? Well, it can actually be summarised in just five words: “Give us what Scotland has.” The Scots have control of the crown estate, a better funding settlement, with more money through the Barnett formula, heavy rail is devolved, and the Scottish government controls policing and justice, as well as having partial control of welfare spending.
When you look at it from that perspective, it’s not as if the Welsh government is asking for something unprecedented. The UK government only has to look north to see the precedent. You don’t have to be a Welsh nationalist to think it’s unfair that Wales’s government is equipped with fewer tools than its Scottish counterparts to meaningfully tackle Wales’s challenges.
Wales has less borrowing capacity than a local council and, as mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham had more power over policing in his area than the first minister of Wales does. The stars are aligning for Wales to get more parity with Scotland. If Burnham follows his own devolution logic – that decisions should be taken closer to the people they impact –then how could he defend a region of England getting more autonomy than a nation?
Though figures within Plaid clearly believe that Burnham is genuinely open to giving Wales more powers, they have real concerns that the more devo-sceptic figures within both the UK Labour party and the civil service will hinder their attempts. These fears are not unfounded. A leaked memo from Starmer revealed that he warned his cabinet against being “overly deferential” to devolved governments.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
