Prime Minister Andy Burnham gave a few clues as to how he will approach Wales during his visit to Port Talbot on Thursday, his first official trip to the country since taking office. The Makerfield MP spoke to workers and apprentices at Tata Steel's Port Talbot site, where an electric arc furnace to recycle steel is being built, as part of his summer "listening tour" of the UK.
The former Manchester Mayor indicated that his experience of leading a city with significant devolved powers in England would give him a different perspective on Wales than some former Prime Ministers. However, he offered no commitments to Rhun ap Iorwerth's government.
Different approach to predecessors
Several former First Ministers have complained about the lack of communication they received from their Westminster counterparts. Boris Johnson usually sent a deputy, often Michael Gove, to meet then first minister Mark Drakeford. Keir Starmer never found time to meet Rhun ap Iorwerth, either as Plaid leader or as First Minister.
Andy Burnham said on Thursday that he wants to bring Wales' First Minister together with the leaders of Scotland and Northern Ireland for a summit this autumn to discuss ways to boost the UK economy. By resurrecting an idea first created by Gordon Brown during the financial crisis, the Prime Minister is indicating a willingness to sit down early for a face-to-face meeting with the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that his predecessors have not always made a priority.
Open to giving Wales more powers
The new Prime Minister emphasised that his experience as Manchester Mayor would give him a different approach to devolution in Wales than other Prime Ministers. However, he was guarded when it came to questions of devolving further powers. On the question of devolving power over policing, he left the door open without making any commitment.
He said: "That's an issue I'm certainly prepared to look at, and I hear what you're saying. As a former mayor that had those responsibilities, I understand how much you can do when you can really make policing right for the places and the people where you are. So I hear that call, I'm open to the discussion with the Welsh government. As part of the wider policing reform that's going on, it seems a good time to have a look at those issues. So I can't promise today, but what I can say is I'm open to the conversation."
It might not sound like much, but it is a different tone to his home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who explicitly rejected the idea of devolving policing when she was asked about it earlier this year as part of the ongoing review of the structure of the 43 forces in England and Wales. There are also many others in Labour who are at best suspicious or even steadfastly opposed to handing over power over policing to Wales, as is the case in Scotland.
No commitments on Crown Estate
The word 'No' might not have been part of Mr Burnham's vocabulary on his visit, but he was careful not to make any commitments. He faced questions about the Welsh Government's calls for devolution of the Crown Estate, which administers the holdings of the Monarch, including the seabed where offshore wind farms are placed.
Scotland was granted control over Crown Estate holdings north of the border after a law was passed in 2016, with money from its properties and enterprises flowing directly into the coffers of the Scottish Government. Wales's Plaid Cymru Government has asked for parity with Scotland. Welsh Labour's manifesto for the Senedd elections earlier this year also promised to make the case for devolving control over the Crown Estate in Wales.
All Mr Burnham would promise is to give Plaid's Rhun ap Iorwerth a "fair hearing" when the pair meet at the National Economic Council later this year. He said: "Requests for further devolution will be given a fair hearing, but I am not giving commitments today as it has to be done carefully, that's what devolution is about."
Support for regional devolution and rail pledge
The one type of devolution Mr Burnham was fulsome in his support of was giving power to towns and cities. He said he wanted to see parts of Wales working closely with neighbouring areas of England. He said: "Maybe there's an argument for deeper devolution, so more power into the cities and the regions of Wales, to North Wales working more with the North West, or mid Wales more with the West Midlands, of the kind of devolution that is developing now quite quickly across England." That is unlikely to be music to the ears of the Welsh Government.
On rail, Wales' network has long been massively underfunded, with investment poured into the south east of England and HS2, while the network here has not received a fair population-based share. Mr Burnham said he would honour Keir Starmer's pledge to fully back the Welsh Government's £14bn wish list of 43 rail projects to transform the network in the coming decades. He said: "The answer is a strong yes. Growth comes if you've got good infrastructure, but without the infrastructure, often you know you are making the growth mission much more difficult. Setting Wales up for the future requires for that £14 billion to be honoured, and it will be."
He added that he and his family had faced rail delays on their visits to see his daughter at Cardiff University, where she graduated this summer. He had warm words about Transport for Wales, which he said was one of the most reliable operators that feeds into the rail network in the north west of England.
