A group Welsh Labour Senedd members have fired off a warning letter to Starmer over the government’s “failure to move forward with agreed steps to devolve further functions to Wales.” The 11 members fume:
“Not only is the Government not progressing these but it is rolling back the existing devolution settlement. If this was being done by a Tory Government, we would be calling for a judicial review. This must never happen again. Wales needs and deserves to be treated as an equal part of the UK and the UK Government has a responsibility to act to deliver this equality.”
Meanwhile Labour Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan has been moaning about not being given enough money from Westminster. Red on red wars roll on…
Read the letter in full below:
Sir Keir Starmer
Prime Minister
SENEDD
LABOUR PARTY
Welsh Parliament / Senedd Cymru
Cardiff Bay/Bae Caerdydd
Cardiff / Caerdydd
CF99 1NA
3rd December 2025
Dear Keir,
We have increasing concern about the failure to move forward with agreed steps to devolve further functions to Wales. In opposition we raised expectations of reform of the Barnett formula, devolution of rail infrastructure, policing and justice and of the Crown Estate. Not only is the Government not progressing these but it is rolling back the existing devolution settlement.
The most recent example, the Pride in Place Programme, has caused considerable unhappiness amongst Welsh Labour Senedd Members. This is a UK Government programme operating in a wholly devolved area that is being designed and delivered from Whitehall.
Why is the UK Government directly funding Welsh Councils to fix bus shelters, reopen park toilets, and provide bins?
As well as top-slicing funding from the Local Growth Fund – which we would have expected to have been passed to the Welsh Government as an EU successor fund – Pride in Place is being imposed using powers in the UK Internal Market Act 2020.
Regeneration is a devolved matter. Yet UKIMA is being used to give the UK Government authority to provide financial assistance without requiring consent from the Senedd or Welsh Ministers. You will remember the Welsh Government brought a Judicial Review against the last UK Government because, in its view, the Internal Market Act represented an unwarranted attack on devolution. The Conservative legislation repealed parts of the Government of Wales Act 2006, reduced the Senedd’s legislative competence, and gave UK Ministers broad “Henry VIII powers” to amend primary legislation, which could undermine devolution.
For our own Government to then come in and use the very same powers to act in devolved areas is at best deeply insensitive, at worst a constitutional outrage.
Not only is it wrong in principle to use the Internal Market Act in this way, the design of the Pride in Place programme by the Wales Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has cut out the democratically elected Welsh Government in a policy area that is fully within its remit. Whilst there is a genuflection in the neighbourhood selection criteria to the Welsh Government policies, the UK Government is, nonetheless, requiring Welsh local authorities to seek Whitehall approval for spending that cuts across existing programmes. This is ineffective and wasteful, and no way to spend public money.
If this was being done by a Tory Government, we would be calling for a judicial review. This must never happen again. Wales needs and deserves to be treated as an equal part of the UK and the UK Government has a responsibility to act to deliver this equality. The signs are clear that the public understands this, we must demonstrate that we do too.
Yours
Mick Antoniw MS Hannah Blythyn MS Alun Davies MS
John Griffiths MS Lesley Griffiths MS
Julie Morgan MS Jenny Rathbone MS
Rhianon Passmore MS
Carolyn Thomas MS
Mike Hedges MS
Lee Waters MS
SENEDD
LABOUR PARTY
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