{"id":469616,"date":"2026-03-11T12:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469616\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T12:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:42:07","slug":"starmer-warned-cabinet-against-overly-deferential-relations-with-devolved-governments-devolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469616\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer warned cabinet against \u2018overly deferential\u2019 relations with devolved governments | Devolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer warned his cabinet against an \u201coverly deferential\u201d approach to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments, according to a leaked memo.<\/p>\n

In the document from December, obtained and published on Tuesday by Plaid Cymru, Starmer said ministers should be prepared to make spending decisions \u201ceven when devolved governments may oppose this\u201d. It came shortly after Labour Senedd members wrote to the prime minister over concerns his administration was rolling back devolution powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverly deferential or laissez-faire\u201d engagement with the Celtic administrations would \u201calmost inevitably create political challenges or missed positive opportunities\u201d, he wrote.<\/p>\n

The memo is dated 10 days after an unprecedented letter<\/a> to Downing Street signed by a third of Welsh Labour members of the Senedd over a funding row that they called \u201cat best deeply insensitive, at worst a constitutional outrage\u201d.<\/p>\n

The members also expressed \u201cincreasing concern\u201d about what they said was Westminister\u2019s failure to devolve further functions to Wales \u2013 including justice, policing and the crown estate \u2013 some of which is Labour<\/a> party policy.<\/p>\n

The Plaid Cymru<\/a> leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, used the leak to attack the Welsh first minister, Labour\u2019s Eluned Morgan, during first minister\u2019s questions on Tuesday, calling the document Starmer\u2019s \u201cown version of Boris Johnson\u2019s muscular unionism\u201d. He also accused Morgan of undermining her own administration by repeatedly aligning with Starmer.<\/p>\n

Morgan said: \u201cDevolution must be respected, and I\u2019ve always been very clear with the prime minister on that issue. It is a respectful relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street said: \u201cWe make no apologies for being determined to deliver for people across all four nations of the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland<\/a>, there are clearly reserved areas of governmental responsibilities and this government is committed to upholding this devolution settlement with mutual respect and partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the leak is being seen as further evidence of conflict within Welsh Labour as it heads into the election fight of its life. The party, struggling with a 26-year-long incumbency issue and an unpopular leader in Westminster, is polling third or even fourth in May\u2019s Senedd elections.<\/p>\n

Coalition wrangling makes it likely that Plaid Cymru will form the next Welsh government, ending 100 years of Labour hegemony, while Reform UK is set to become the biggest party and form the official opposition.<\/p>\n

In the memo, Starmer wrote that the importance of the Welsh and Scottish elections in spring \u201ccannot be underestimated\u201d and will have a \u201csignificant impact on how we govern at UK level in the second half of parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer warned his cabinet against an \u201coverly deferential\u201d approach to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-469616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}