Why the Prime Minister hasn't met the Welsh First Minister yet

A promised meeting between Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not been scheduled. A Plaid Cymru source — the party is the junior partner in Wales's governing coalition — told BBC News that the Welsh Government had tried to arrange it, but no date was agreed.

On the surface, this looks like a diary problem. But it matters more than that. Starmer made clear, just days after taking office in July 2024, that he wanted a fresh approach to governing all four nations of the UK — Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and England — together. Speaking at Downing Street on 6 July 2024, he said he would travel to meet each of the four First Ministers in turn. The signal was unmistakable: this government would work across the whole of Britain, not just manage things from Whitehall.

Some of that has actually happened. In October 2024, the Council of Nations and Regions held its first meeting in years, bringing together the devolved leaders with the Prime Minister and his ministers. Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly attended, according to the Executive Office. The Council had been left unused for years under the previous government. Its restart was widely seen as proof that the new administration meant what it said about taking devolved politics seriously.

The failure to lock in a bilateral meeting with Wales's First Minister — especially one promised for June — sits oddly against that backdrop. Wales is governed by Welsh Labour, and Morgan leads an administration of the same party as the Prime Minister. When two Labour leaderships struggle to arrange a meeting, and it takes a Plaid Cymru source to flag the gap publicly, something in Welsh politics is worth paying attention to.

The fact that Plaid chose to tell the BBC about this is telling. The party benefits from underlining distance between Cardiff and London when it can, and this gives them a way to do that without directly attacking a Labour government they nominally support in the Welsh Parliament (the Senedd). It is how coalition politics works in devolved governments.

For Starmer, the timing is awkward. He set a clear test for himself in his first days: a four-nations approach, backed up by a Council meeting, backed up by bilateral sit-downs with each leader. Missing that June window with Cardiff — even quietly — raises a question about whether the early commitment to devolved engagement has faded into the everyday machinery of a first-year government juggling a full legislative programme.

No. 10 has not, as of 19 June 2026, announced a rescheduled date. Whether the meeting happens before parliament breaks for summer will say something about how seriously Starmer's four-nations pledge is being kept in practice.