Burnham must ensure devolution does not stop at Offa’s Dyke

Rhun ap Iorwerth

The prospect of a new Prime Minister should always present an opportunity to redefine the relationship between the nations and regions of the United Kingdom.

Each premier will have their vision for where power should lie, how resources should be allocated and how government should interact with people’s everyday lives.

For my part, I have always been driven by the principles of fairness and collaboration, and I was heartened by Andy Burnham’s pledge last week to reach out to other political parties to find as much common ground as possible.

For his part, the challenge will be not to allow his unionism to determine that some of this ground will be off limits.

Inviting the reader to “imagine a rambling stately home” in his 2024 book ‘Head North’, Andy Burnham develops an analogy for the imbalanced United Kingdom with “much dimmer” lights in the room representing Wales.

Whilst I agree that there needs to be a wholesale rewiring of the building, what Andy Burnham fails to acknowledge is that the UK in its current form is a house built on sand, one where inequality and economic injustice are not just reflected in the brightness of the lights but running through the flawed and flimsy foundations.

Despite winning a parliament of our own nearly thirty years ago, despite considerable devolution of powers in 2011 and despite a historic election in which Plaid Cymru ended a hundred years of Labour dominance back in May, Wales remains a footnote in the UK’s political story.

As a new Welsh Government, it is Plaid Cymru’s mission to change that. A small nation is not predisposed to having small ambitions.

But lumped in with the regions of England – who are of course entitled to fair funding and political focus for themselves – Wales is pushed to the margins of political debate whilst the centre of gravity remains in Westminster.

Manchesterism may have its merits, but its limitations cannot go unnoticed and indeed unchallenged. An evolution of a city-plan is just that – a local, even parochial vision which falls short of getting to grips with the fundamental weakness of how the UK is governed and ironically risks pitting region against region. A Number 10 of the North will mean little to the people of the communities my government represents.

For me, it has never been England v Wales, nor any one area against the other.

On taking office, I vowed to be a First Minister for the whole of Wales, and I remain steadfast in that commitment. Part of that is about taking our own decisions in Wales about connecting our own Welsh regions together, not pitting north against south or Bangor against Cardiff, but fulfilling the potential of all parts of our nation.

Constructive

My new Welsh Government has also vowed to engage with the UK Government and Prime Minister of the day in a positive and constructive manner, always driven by the best interests of Wales.

However, we don’t want that to be at the expense of any other nation or region because we in Wales are all-too familiar with how that feels.

Billions lost to HS2 when our railway infrastructure is crying out for investment. This is not part of some conspiracy concocted in the corridors of Westminster to spite our nation, but an inherent unfairness borne out of a fundamentally distorted system. It is not anti-Welsh it is simply pro-Westminster, and I would hope a future Prime Minister would agree with that.

Because many of us in Wales have long been aware of the broken Westminster system which Andy Burnham spoke of in his recent speech.

That is why the only way to truly rebalance the UK is to empower our own national parliament so that we have parity with Scotland as a bare minimum. If we are to move away from the corrosive hyper-centralisation which has come to define Westminster politics, this new wave of devolution must not break on Offa’s Dyke.

Natural next step

Alongside a fairer settlement which funds Wales according to need not population, the transfer of powers over policing, justice, the Crown Estates and rail should represent a natural next step for any Prime Minister who wants to demonstrate their commitment to the nations and regions. A new Wales Bill cannot come soon enough.

Every council in Wales supports the devolution of the Crown Estates. The Senedd has voted in favour of reforming the Barnett Formula. The Thomas Commission and the Independent Commission on the Future Constitution of Wales have made the case for the devolution of justice and policing. These are not narrow, party-political calls but issues on which Wales has spoken with one voice – and when that happens, our voice becomes harder for Westminster to ignore.

My sincere view is that having a staunch devolutionist in Number 10 offers hope for redesigning the UK, but this must mean not just driving power our of London into the English regions, but to the national parliaments too. If Andy Burnham is to demonstrate his full commitment to subsidiarity, then our Senedd must be empowered, not bypassed.

In attending my first meeting of the British Irish Council as First Minister tomorrow, I will be taking this message to counterparts in all nations of these islands, promoting fairness, collaboration and a new respect agenda, because Wales cannot be left lingering in a dimly-lit room.