A promised meeting between Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not been arranged. BBC News reported that the Welsh Government tried to set up the meeting, but no date was agreed.

This is awkward for Number 10 — the Prime Minister's office. When Starmer took office in July 2024, he said he wanted to meet the leaders of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England. He wanted to signal that a Labour government would pay proper attention to all four nations of the UK, not just focus on Westminster in London.

Some of that promise has come through. In October 2024, the Council of Nations and Regions met for the first time. This is a formal forum where the Prime Minister and devolved leaders — those in charge of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly — discuss issues. The Northern Ireland Executive confirmed both its First Minister and deputy attended. This council had barely met under the previous Conservative government, so its restart was meant to show Starmer meant business about four-nations politics.

Against this backdrop, the missing bilateral meeting — a one-to-one between Starmer and the Welsh First Minister — looks more pointed than a simple diary clash. Wales is led by Welsh Labour, the same party as Starmer. When two Labour administrations struggle to schedule a meeting, and it is Plaid Cymru — the party that props up the Welsh Labour government — that publicly flags the scheduling failure, something else may be at work.

Why does this matter?

The source's decision to tell the BBC about the failed scheduling was likely deliberate. Plaid has a political interest in showing distance between Cardiff and London when it suits them. Flagging that Starmer has not found time to meet the Welsh First Minister is a way to make that point without directly attacking a Labour government they are tied to in Cardiff. It is a familiar tactic in devolved coalition politics.

For Starmer, the optics are untidy. He set himself a clear standard in his first days: meeting each nation's leaders. The Council of Nations and Regions gives this framework formal structure. Bilateral meetings add personal contact. Missing a June window with Wales — even quietly — raises the question of whether his early ambition for devolved engagement has been buried under the weight of governing. No. 10 has not publicly offered a new date as of 19 June 2026. Whether the meeting happens before Parliament breaks for summer recess will show whether this was merely a scheduling mix-up or something that tells us more about how Starmer and Morgan's governments actually get on.