Sir Keir Starmer to meet with mayors and devolved leaders
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will meet with mayors and leaders of the devolved nations this week as he has pledged “no more talking shops of the past”.
Downing Street has announced that Sir Keir will gather with leaders in Scotland on Friday in a meeting that will focus on opportunities for investment in the UK.
It comes ahead of the International Investment Summit later this month to which local leaders and the heads of the devolved governments have also been invited.
Trust
The Prime Minister has said he is “determined to bring forward a new era of stability, trust and partnership with businesses, investors, devolved governments and local leaders to boost the economy, and restore the UK’s reputation one of the best places in the world to do business”.
He said the Government is “delivering our promise to convene the first Council of the Nations and Regions”.
He added: “No more talking shops of the past. Genuine, meaningful and focused partnership to change the way we do business, redefine our position on the world’s stage and unlock the whole of the UK’s untapped potential to make everyone, everywhere better-off.”
The Prime Minister will take part in an in-conversation event with Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Google, at the investment summit on October 14.
Tracy Brabin, who has been mayor of West Yorkshire since 2021, described mayors as “champions of their regions at home and abroad”, and said that “our investments in transport, skills and homes create the right environment for growth by connecting businesses to the talent and finance they need to succeed”.
Mayors
Sir Keir met with regional mayors in Downing Street days after Labour’s election victory and pledged the Government would set up a “council for regions and nations”.
Speaking during the meeting in Number 10 on July 9, the Prime Minister said: “I don’t want to overly formalise it, but I do want a degree of formality so that it’s a meeting that everybody knows is a meeting where business is done, where decisions are properly recorded and actioned.
“And where people know that we will all be there and we won’t be sending substitutes, or missing the meeting.”
At the time, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, told the BBC that the plans were “music to my ears”.
“To have a council of the regions and nations meeting regularly just means we can be sure that the voice of Greater Manchester, of the North of England, is heard at the heart of Whitehall on an ongoing basis,” he said.
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The council should have the power to veto.
So … devolution of justice, devolution of broadcasting and media and HS2 consequential all on the table, yes? Or are we having the poverbial taken by a UK Govt yet again. Not a talking shop? Proof is in the pudding.
Are you seriously suggesting that the currently-devolved elements in Wales are working well under the Welsh Government?
Is anything in this infernal UK working well Adrian? Labour set the Welsh Assembly up like a county council. They still try to run the Senedd as their fiefdom. They’ve resisted at every step of the way: Objective One funding, law making powers, tax raising powers, STV. They are only interested in managing a centrally determined budget and an unambitious narrow agenda. They are not interested in a Welsh Democracy. They like the appearance of democracy within this dysfunctional UK. It is very clear that Labour want to occupy positions of power without having any intention of reforming a hopelessly… Read more »
Ah, so it’s OK because we’re no worse than the rest of the UK? If devolution was the answer then the currently-devolved components should be working really well….they’re not.
I’ve already answered the points you raised if you care to pay attention. Try answering the question instead of putting words in my mouth.
“If devolution was the answer”
Independence was and is the answer.
“currently-devolved components should be working really well….they’re not.”
They don’t work well as the components have been badly designed and those using them (Labour party in wales) are committed to not getting the best they can out of them or replace them with better ones.
Item one on the agenda.
All nationalities on this island to be given their basic human right to have, hold and quote their correct nationality backed up by a passport to the same effect.
Item two? Over to you. Carry on.
Build the institutions and capacities required for a functioning Welsh Democracy.
So, now Wales (Scotland, and NI) have been demoted to the same level as English provincial or city mayors?
As a stepping stone to reinstating the Heptarchy it’s to be welcomed. Everyone benefits if England is broken up, whether as a independent neighbour or union member. But this council needs to have teeth otherwise it’ll just be ignored.
Will his new advisor for the regions, Sue Gray be heading it up now she is no longer CoS
I’ve just seen that Sue Grey has resigned from her existing post, “too much unhelpful contention” sic, and is now to be Starmer’s “Envoy to the Regions and Cities”. And probably elevated to the Lords? Because that’s how failure works.
So we now have an “envoy” to the far flung colonies, just like the Raj but with Starmer in his plumed hat, those ostrich feathers lovingly paid for by Lord Alli.
“Oh what a lovely Labour party “
May I remind Keir Starmer that those so-called “talking shops” were so because New Labour retained powers & levers in 1997. Also it doesn’t help when powers requested are denied cynically to one constituent part i.e Wales but devolved to Scotland, Northern Ireland & England. And less we forget. The then Welsh Assembly in 1999 stumbled along for twelve wasted years of devolution because the then Welsh Assembly not only lacked sufficient members to function , this a deliberate act by New Labour, having only 60 AMs but it also lacked teeth to make real change due to no real… Read more »
Mrs G will now be laying down the law to those pesky Celts
Isn’t she a pesky Celt herself?
Sounds like there is a ‘Celt’ in the CEO’s chair now…
Morgan Red Beard of Macroom, County Cork, it is a place of many moods I should imagine…
What an insult to Cymru. We need a starmer him out of Cymru vote 🗳️
Even the PM can see how useless the devolved governments are and his way is to cut them out of control of these ministers . FM and her previous FM,s together with Welsh Labour ministers complained when the conservatives started to this now they won’t say a word