First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has again called for a “new deal” with Westminster, including greater powers over policing, justice, railways and the Crown Estate. The Plaid Cymru leader has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking for more powers to be transferred to Cardiff Bay, and is now expected to meet the Prime Minister at the end of the month.
Ready for the 'next step'
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, Mr ap Iorwerth said Wales is ready for the "next step" in devolution, 27 years after the Welsh Assembly was established and 12 years after it gained full law-making powers.
The First Minister said: "Given that we now have a prime minister who says he’s very interested in further devolution, let’s work with that and give Wales the powers."
He called for “more fiscal flexibility, a fairer funding formula, powers over rail, policing and justice, the Crown Estate” and other responsibilities. He said the aim was to give the Welsh Government and Senedd the tools to improve people's lives.
Not an independence debate
"A package of powers that would give us as a Welsh government and the Welsh Parliament the tools to do the job to build a better future for the people of Wales - because that’s what we’re doing this for," he said.
"This isn’t about an independence debate. It is about arming us with the tools that we need as a government to make decisions in a better way for the people of Wales."
But when asked about Mr Burnham’s opposition to Welsh independence, Mr ap Iorwerth said: "As the leader of Plaid Cymru I support Wales being just a normal nation - like many, many others - being an independent nation."
"People, whether or not they agree yet or have been convinced about independence, they know that in me they have somebody who believes in Wales, believes in our potential and crucially is getting on with the jobs with the powers that we have now and making the case for further powers."
"I will not accept that this is the best things can get for Wales."
Mandate and priorities
Mr ap Iorwerth said his government had been given a mandate at May's Senedd election to deliver practical changes for people in Wales. He said his priorities included improving standards in the NHS, raising education standards, creating good jobs and delivering what he described as the most generous childcare offer in the UK.
The First Minister, who has been in office for five months, was asked when people should expect to see results from his government. "I think the delivery is there to be seen," he said.
He pointed to the rollout of the childcare offer, which he said was already benefiting thousands of parents, as well as the expansion of free school meals. He also highlighted infrastructure improvements in north and south Wales, new bus services linking the two parts of the country and a £1bn deal providing farmers with greater certainty over government support.
"Right across the board we are seeing issue after issue on which we are seeing action from this government after too many years of inaction."
"Have we achieved all that we have set out to do yet? Of course not, we are five months in."
"This is just the beginning but we have that first hundred day plan and we achieved everything we needed to do there."
"We hit the ground running. We’re building all those firm foundations now because it was about time that Wales changed the gear and I think that’s what people are seeing."
National care service call
Mr ap Iorwerth also called for rapid progress towards a national care service, an issue which Mr Burnham has been very vocal on achieving in England as Prime Minister. He said the Welsh Government was already doing the policy work needed to establish such a service, but that funding would be a key issue.
"If there were to be a national care service of a significant kind leading to paid-for care on the UK level, we would expect there to be consequentials coming to Wales," he said.
He criticised the previous UK government over Boris Johnson’s abandoned plans for social care reform, saying Wales had already developed proposals which could have been put into action if the money had been transferred.
Mr ap Iorwerth urged Mr Burnham to act rather than wait for a future election. He said: "To Andy Burnham now I would say don’t just campaign as a prime minister for what you’d like to do after 2030. Get down to business on doing this right now. This is the privilege that he has in being Prime Minister and we will work with him."
"We might have a different way of implementing it in Wales but I think Andy Burnham and I agree that this issue of care for older people - I will be one of them hopefully one day - is of crucial importance."
"I would encourage rapid movement on this."
Green Party motion criticised
Mr ap Iorwerth was also asked whether his willingness to work with the Welsh Green Party had been affected by a motion passed at its conference equating Zionism with racism.
Green Party deputy leader Phil Davies resigned over the motion to declare 'Zionism is racism' because it was "pointless" and some of the statements made were "disgraceful". Phil Davies had been a Greens member for seven years, but had announced on social media on Tuesday his decision to quit the party had been "accelerated" by the motion over the weekend. In the post he had described the motion as "imperialistic" and "idiotic", and that it "doesn't materially achieve anything in the real world".
Mr ap Iorwerth said the decision had been "very ill judged". He said: "What I’ll say is this, and I was asked about this yesterday in the Senedd, I think it was very ill judged by the Green party."
"We today remember the horrendous atrocities of October 7 as we remember the tens of thousands of people killed in the Israeli genocide in Gaza, but we must stand firm against discrimination of any kind, be that antisemitism or Islamophobia."
"We must make the case for the two state solution where Israelis and the Palestinians are able to live peacefully side-by-side."
"This attitude and politics as it expressed over the past few days by the Green party doesn’t help in that respect."
