Andy Burnham’s team offered WalesOnline an “error-filled” article that promised action on housing, business rates and education – all powers controlled by the Plaid Cymru government in Cardiff. The news site refused to publish the piece without a disclaimer, calling it a “Welshified version” of identical essays already run by the Scotsman and the London Standard.
Plaid MS Carrie Harper labelled it a “copy and paste opinion piece”. WalesOnline’s political editor Ruth Mosalski wrote: “We didn’t run the piece we were offered as it was confused about where power and responsibility lies in Wales.” The article listed promises on housing, education and transport, despite those being devolved matters for which the Welsh government is responsible.
“WalesOnline rejected Andy Burnham's 'error-filled' article that confused devolved powers, as he prepares to become PM.”
The gaffe comes as Burnham, the sole candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer and expected to become prime minister on 20 July, promises the biggest “rebalancing of power our country has ever seen”. In a major speech last week, he vowed to shift power from Westminster to the nations and regions. Both the Scotsman and London Standard published near-identical articles last week, with only the sector lists changed: “steel, ports, energy and manufacturing” for Wales; “energy, shipbuilding, manufacturing and public services” for Scotland; “housing, transport, skills and public services” for London.
Burnham’s localist ambitions, however, inherit a devolution agenda already mired in farce. Under Starmer, plans emerged for a single metro mayor to oversee Norfolk and Suffolk – a combined area the size of Cyprus, six times larger than Greater London – from 2028. Equally contentious is the proposal for a mayor covering all of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, despite historic rivalries between Southampton and Portsmouth, where locals call each other “scum” and “skates”.
The incoming PM has promised a “collaborative” relationship with Wales. But his team’s confused pitch – and the wider record of botched local government reorganisation – suggests the gap between rhetoric and reality remains stubbornly wide.