Afternoon summary
At a press conference after the British-Irish Council meeting in Edinburgh, John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, said relations with the UK government were “incomparably better” than they were when the Conservatives were in power. (See 2.51pm.)
The other leaders of devolved administrations said the same.
Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland, said she was glad that Keir Starmer wanted a “reset” and that the PM showed a a “genuine willingness” to work with the Northern Ireland assembly. She said:
I think the tenure of the Tories in government was one of disrespect, one that drove an austerity agenda that decimated our public services, one that very much left people behind.
Stormont’s deputy first minister, the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly, said a key test would be whether the UK govenrment listened to concerns expressed about the budget. She said:
Will they listen to the many, many thousands of farmers from across the United Kingdom and their concern about agricultural relief? Will they listen to the thousands and thousands of businesses across the United Kingdom, across Northern Ireland, concerned about national insurance contributions? I think that’s the test for this government. We raised that today with them, and we’ll see what happens.
And the Welsh first minister, Labour’s Eluned Morgan, said: “You would expect me to say it has been a much better relationship as a Labour politician, and it genuinely has.” She went on:
We had a flooding in Wales last week and the Prime Minister picked up the phone that very evening to check if there was anything we needed. That would never have happened before.
