The UK's New Prime Minister Meets the Leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is making his first official visit to Wales, hosting a meeting in South Wales with the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These three countries run many of their own services — like health and schools — through their own governments, separate from Westminster. This is the first time all four leaders have met since Burnham became prime minister on 20 July 2026 (BBC News).
Downing Street said the prime minister wanted to talk about how to boost growth everywhere in the UK. Burnham said the best solutions would come from local areas that understand their own strengths, and from a government willing to listen and act, rather than from a closed circle in London (BBC News).
The summit follows earlier contact. On 21 July 2026, Burnham held phone calls with the leaders of Scotland and Wales, and the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, saying he looked forward to meeting them all in person soon (gov.uk). The First Minister of Wales issued a statement on Burnham's appointment the same day (Welsh Government). Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth met Burnham face-to-face for the first time at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July. He said then that it was too early to know whether the new Labour prime minister would agree to what he was asking for (BBC News). Downing Street said the prime minister wanted an open and ongoing dialogue with the first minister (BBC News).
Burnham will also meet the Welsh government's deputy first minister, Sioned Williams. She called the visit a positive example of governments working together. Williams will ask for a fair share of the UK government's steel fund, a special energy tariff to help people struggling with fuel bills, and action on high standing charges in Wales. She said Wales produces a lot of energy and people should see the benefit in good jobs, stronger communities and lower bills (BBC News).
The Welsh government said it wanted to discuss shared challenges, including growth and investment across all four countries, help for families facing the cost-of-living crisis, fairer funding and more powers for Wales (BBC News). Plaid Cymru, a Welsh political party, has pushed the UK government for talks about giving more powers and money to the Senedd — the Welsh parliament — and the Welsh government in Cardiff (BBC News).
The summit is part of a wider set of structures Burnham is putting in place. He has brought back the National Economic Council, set up by Gordon Brown in 2008. A previous meeting brought together government ministers and English city mayors. The South Wales summit applies a similar approach to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but with a key difference: the leaders of those nations were elected by their own voters and have their own parliaments with their own powers (BBC News).
Some of the things Williams is asking about — steel funding, energy regulation and standing charges — are controlled by the UK government in Westminster, not by the Welsh government. That makes her requests a test of how money and power are shared between the two levels of government. An energy social tariff, for example, would need Treasury approval and new laws at Westminster to cover England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland would need their own versions under their separate arrangements. The steel fund is also a UK government programme, and there is no fixed formula for sharing it out based on what each nation needs.
The broader context here is that Burnham is trying to set up regular meetings between the four nations, rather than one-off conversations. You could think of it like replacing occasional phone calls with a regular committee that meets on a set timetable. The question for the first ministers is whether these meetings will lead to real changes in funding and powers, or simply serve as a talking shop that leaves the current arrangements untouched. For ap Iorwerth, the summit is a first chance to press his case in person on Welsh soil. For Plaid Cymru, which wants even more powers for the Senedd than the Welsh government is asking for, the summit will be judged against a higher standard. The fact that the meeting is being held in South Wales, rather than in Westminster, is itself a signal of where Burnham thinks the UK's economic conversation should happen (BBC News).
