A new era of rows over powers awaits

THERESA May signalled yesterday that the devolution debate is about to intensify. The most recent Wales Bill only became law in January, and there had once been hopes in Conservative circles that the legislation would bring a new era of constitutional stability.

Brexit has changed everything. Powers today held by Brussels will be returned to the UK – and we can expect a battle about what should be controlled by Westminster and the Assembly.

Mrs May goes into the negotiations with Northern Ireland in crisis, the Scottish Parliament demanding a vote on breaking away and the Welsh Government deeply infuriated.

The Prime Minister told MPs yesterday that the devolved administrations should see “a significant increase in their decision-making power as a result of this process”.

She also stressed that none of the decision-making powers of the devolved legislatures will be removed.

However, Welsh Labour and the SNP will not be content to sit back and allow her to decide which powers should be held by Westminster and which should go to the devolved legislatures. The First Ministers of Wales and Scotland each have bold ideas about how the UK should change and it is highly unlikely that Theresa May will share either of their visions.

The SNP is pressing for another independence referendum and Carwyn Jones wants a move to a much more federal system of government.

He has not disguised his irritation at how Brexit has been handled in the run-up to the sending of the Article 50 letter.

The Bridgend AM said: “[I] did not see the letter before today and we were not invited to contribute to its drafting. This is unacceptable and is the culmination of a deeply frustrating process in which the devolved administrations have been persistently treated with a lack of respect...

“I do not see how the Prime Minister can claim to negotiate on behalf of the whole country when she disregards the rights of this Welsh Government to speak up for the people of Wales.”

There is little reluctance among AMs to speak out on “nondevolved” subjects which are theoretically the responsibility of Wales’ MPs. Welsh political culture has been transformed in the two decades since the 1997 referendum and AMs will fight to protect their autonomy and national interests they consider threatened by Brexit.

Mrs May has pledged to “strengthen the union of the four nations” but it is unclear how she intends to do this. Her promise to “consult fully on which powers should reside in Westminster and which should be passed on to the devolved administrations” is unlikely to cut the mustard in Cardiff and Edinburgh, and Northern Ireland faces political and economic turmoil if trade and travel between north and south become more difficult.

She intends to negotiate as “one United Kingdom” but a key objective will be ensuring its survival. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2014 was 78.5%