Starmer warned cabinet against ‘overly deferential’ relations with devolved governments

The Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has called the document Starmer’s ‘own version of Boris Johnson’s muscular unionism’. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

Keir Starmer warned his cabinet against an “overly deferential” approach to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments, according to a leaked memo.

In the document from December, obtained and published on Tuesday by Plaid Cymru, Starmer said ministers should be prepared to make spending decisions “even when devolved governments may oppose this”. It came shortly after Labour Senedd members wrote to the prime minister over concerns his administration was rolling back devolution powers.