{"id":584341,"date":"2026-05-14T22:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/584341\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T22:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:07:10","slug":"starmer-tells-plaid-first-minister-hes-open-to-discussing-more-senedd-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/584341\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer tells Plaid first minister he&#8217;s &#8216;open&#8217; to discussing more Senedd powers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to a written statement from the Welsh government, Sir Keir said he was &#8220;keen to establish ways of working based on shared interests&#8221; with the new Plaid Cymru administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In return, ap Iorwerth said he wanted the develop &#8220;a constructive relationship&#8221; between the governments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to the statement: &#8220;The first minister made clear he will wish to negotiate on the Barnett formula, fair funding, borrowing powers, rail and further devolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The first minister noted that a Senedd majority, including the Labour group, is in favour of enhanced powers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It added that the prime minister &#8220;confirmed that he would be open to a conversation on powers relating to devolution&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Welsh government said the first minister also sought cooperation on the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on the cost of living.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ap Iorwerth also had phone calls with the leaders of the devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;All agreed to work constructively on issues of shared interest,&#8221; said the Welsh government statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Others familiar with the conversation said that the Welsh government&#8217;s briefing was broadly accurate. They said that the first minister brought up independence, adding they were surprised it had come up in the first conversation with the prime minister.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to a Plaid source, ap Iorwerth told Sir Keir he would guide a national conversation regarding Wales&#8217;s constitutional future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Writing on X, Plaid&#8217;s leader in the House of Commons Liz Saville Roberts said this was something ap Iorwerth had made clear throughout the election campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8216;That does not mean a referendum now. Labour know that,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A Downing Street spokesperson said: &#8220;The prime minister spoke earlier today with the new First Minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, to congratulate him on his election victory and appointment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They discussed working together constructively in the national interest, including on easing the cost of living and our domestic response to the Middle East crisis, and agreed on the importance of partnership to deliver for the people of Wales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The prime minister invited the first minister to meet in person in June, alongside the first minister of Scotland and the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, to continue discussions on shared priorities.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a written statement from the Welsh government, Sir Keir said he was &#8220;keen to establish ways&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-584341","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\/584341","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=584341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}