Wales will 'possibly' get more powers under a future Labour UK Government, says Keir Starmer 

Wales will "possibly" get more powers under a future Labour UK Government, according to Keir Starmer.

The Labour leader said he was “not precious” about the prospect of devolving more power to the Senedd and Welsh Government, including control over things like policing and the welfare system. 

But he said he was “more interested” in making sure that Welsh people have “more power over the decisions that affect them".

Keir Starmer’s comments come in an interview with me ahead of Labour’s UK conference in Brighton. 

Sir Keir also praised Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford, although he indicated that he wouldn’t’ be offering him a Shadow Cabinet role. 

The First Minister is, however, involved in a new UK-wide Labour scheme to harness the experience of Labour politicians in power outside Westminster, something which has long been called for by many in Welsh Labour.

When I asked if that meant more powers for Wales? He said: “Possibly more powers to Wales, I'm not precious about that.”

When pushed on what sort of powers, like control over policing or control of the welfare system, he said: “I’m interested in that -  I'm more interested in the question of how people of Wales, in their towns and their villages and their communities, have more power over the decisions that affect them every day.

"Their schools, their public services, the housing that's built in their area. If there is council housing or social housing, what it looks like what it feels like. 

“So, yes, a debate about the formal powers: do they reside in Westminster, Do they reside in Wales, but I'm interested in much more dynamic conversation than that which is: how do communities in Wales have more control about what happens in their own community?”

Looking at this is pressing, he said, because “there are great strains in the union [of the United Kingdom] and I think it's one of the reasons that we need to address the future of the Union. I don't want to see the United Kingdom broken up, I do accept that there's got to be change.”

Labour’s UK conference which begins this weekend in Brighton, already looks likely to be a fraught one with tensions still running high nearly two years after the party’s General Election defeat and 18 months after Jeremy Corbyn stepped down from the leadership. 

Long-term grumbles over Keir Starmer’s approach, an internal row about changing the rules for leadership elections and the decision of one MP not to attend because of safety fears suggests that Labour is still coping with divisions. 

So it’s no wonder that the UK leader is keen to celebrate one section of his party which is not only in power but has been returned to power after making gains in an election, as Welsh Labour did in the Senedd election in May. 

It’s all the more surprising then that in the pamphlet setting out his vision which was published this week, Keir Starmer only mentioned Wales once. 

I teased him about that in my interview, but he insisted that there are “Welsh fingerprints all over it.”

He meant that his conversations with Mark Drakeford and others as well as a series of meetings, in person and virtual, with people across Wales over the last 18 months, have influenced every part of the essay.

And he said his office was in regular contact with the Welsh Labour leader’s even though he ducked my question about offering Mark Drakeford a place in his shadow cabinet. 

“Well, I'm not sure what Mark would say about joining the shadow cabinet and having even more work to do," he said.

"What I have done is invite him on occasion to the Shadow Cabinet because obviously I want to hear his views. But my office and his office are in daily contact and I'm very keen to promote the idea of Team Labour, which is not just me in the shadow cabinet, but our other leaders including Mark."

It also seems to be in answer to such criticism that Labour has today revealed how it will formally harness the relationship with Labour in Wales and in other parts of the UK where the party holds power.

Mark Drakeford and the UK party chair, Anneliese Dodds, have joined forces to publish a report aimed at bringing together practical examples of action by Labour in government here in Wales as well as Labour elected mayors in England, Police and Crime Commissioners and local councils across the UK.

The report is called ‘Stronger Together: Labour Works’ and in its foreword, Mark Drakeford says that its aim is to remind the party during a ‘necessary’ period of ’soul-searching’ that it still holds power and is making decisions outside Westminster. 

“By the time of the next General Election, the Tories will have been in Downing Street for longer than the Blair-Brown governments of 1997-2010, which was in turn a reaction to 17 unbroken years of Conservative rule. The temptation to look at the world through a Westminster telescope and to ask, repeatedly, “what went wrong?” is entirely understandable.

“This collection of short essays addresses the same set of issues from a different direction. Instead of focusing on the deficits, it looks at Labour’s many success stories across England, Scotland and Wales."

It’s been a source of frustration for many in Welsh Labour that over the years the Labour Party at a UK level has not made more of the fact that it has a government in Wales and holds power elsewhere in the UK.

The report is intended to be the first stage of a ‘road map’ to harness the experiences of Labour in power in developing policies for the next UK General Election.

That should mean direct influence for Welsh Labour rather than the lip service that’s often been paid to it over the years.