Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth Presses Burnham for Sweeping New Powers for Wales

The leader of Plaid Cymru and First Minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has formally asked the UK prime minister to grant Wales what he describes as a "new deal," setting out an ambitious list of powers he wants transferred from Westminster to Cardiff.

In a letter sent to Andy Burnham on Thursday and obtained by BBC Wales, ap Iorwerth argues that Wales should no longer be treated differently from Scotland when it comes to the constitutional and financial tools available to its devolved government. The request marks one of the most significant interventions of his short tenure as first minister.

The timing is deliberate. Ap Iorwerth is due to address Plaid Cymru members in Llandudno on Friday, delivering his first conference speech since his party's breakthrough at May's Senedd election. That result saw Plaid Cymru take power for the first time in the party's history, ending 27 consecutive years of Labour-led government in Wales since devolution began in 1999.

The first minister's letter runs to roughly 2,000 words and makes a detailed, case-by-case argument for the transfer of specific responsibilities. Among the powers he identifies are policing and justice, rail infrastructure, and the Crown Estate — the sprawling property portfolio whose revenues currently flow to the UK Treasury rather than to Cardiff Bay.

Alongside those transfers, ap Iorwerth calls for a revised funding formula that he says must be "fair, needs-based and reflect Wales' demographic and economic realities." His broader contention is that Wales' constitutional arrangements should not be frozen, but should "continue to evolve to improve democratic accountability, boost growth, strengthen public services and deliver better outcomes for our communities."

Central to his argument is a comparison with Scotland. In the letter, he states that "as an underpinning principle to support these reforms, Wales should be able to benefit from the same constitutional and fiscal tools already available in Scotland." That framing is likely to intensify a long-running debate about whether Wales has been short-changed within the UK's asymmetric devolution settlement.

The first minister will tell conference delegates that the election "delivered a clear mandate from the people of Wales for positive change that makes a tangible difference to their lives." He will argue that this mandate "includes extending devolution to enable the Senedd and the Welsh government to have the necessary tools — powers, funding and financial flexibilities — to drive the maximum improvement in outcomes for the people of Wales by integrating and improving public services and growing the economy."

Ap Iorwerth's position is strengthened politically by the endorsement he received from Burnham earlier in the process. The prime minister has previously said he would "give a fair hearing" to anything put to him by the Welsh first minister, and he has separately indicated he is "open" to the idea of handing the Welsh government control over policing. He has also committed to respecting the governments of the UK's nations, saying: "I have to respect the governments in the nations of the UK, and I will, and give a fair hearing to anything that is put to me."

Even so, the prime minister has ruled out the far more dramatic step of giving Wales the powers to hold an independence referendum — a decision that places a clear ceiling on how far the devolution conversation is currently prepared to go at Westminster. Officials have also cautioned that it is "too early" to know whether Burnham will ultimately back further Welsh powers, suggesting the outcome of the letter remains genuinely uncertain.

The first minister's room for manoeuvre is further complicated by arithmetic in Cardiff Bay. Although Plaid Cymru made history in May, the party does not hold a majority of seats in the Senedd. Ap Iorwerth therefore leads a minority administration that must negotiate with opposition Members of the Senedd to pass legislation and approve budgets. That vulnerability was exposed in July, when the government lost a key vote on its spending plans.

The conference speech also comes amid a broader realignment of nationalist politics across the UK. Last month, ap Iorwerth hosted the first ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland — John Swinney of the SNP and Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Fein — in Cardiff, where the three leaders jointly declared that "Westminster's time is coming to an end." The gathering, which also included Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, was widely read as an attempt to present a coordinated alternative vision for the UK's constitutional future.

Ap Iorwerth is expected to meet Burnham in person at the end of the month, alongside the first ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland. That encounter will be the first real test of whether his written appeal translates into concrete concessions, or whether it joins a long list of devolution requests that stall in Whitehall.

For now, the letter serves two purposes. It puts the UK government on record as having been formally asked for policing, justice, rail and Crown Estate powers, and it gives ap Iorwerth a substantial policy platform to present to his own activists in Llandudno. Whether it produces legislation, a negotiating mandate, or simply a polite acknowledgement will depend on how far Burnham is willing to go — and how much political capital he is prepared to spend on reshaping the union from the centre.