A summit to split Britain

The nationalist First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are meeting in Cardiff to demand independence referendums in all three nations.

Swinney, O'Neill, ap Iorwerth

SNP leader John Swinney, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth and Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O'Neill sit down together tomorrow.

A memorandum on paper

They are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding pushing for votes on breaking up the United Kingdom, turning three separate campaigns into one shared demand.

Wales flipped in May

Plaid Cymru entered government after an election that pushed Welsh Labour out of power for the first time in more than two decades.

A first in modern history

With Wales in Plaid's hands, all three nations are led by separatist parties at the same moment for the first time in modern history.

A different attitude

ap Iorwerth says the three will discuss demanding a changed posture from the UK Government, and the constitutional question is explicitly on the table.

“That pursuit of a different attitude from UK government.”

Money, not just borders

Alongside referendums, the leaders want more cash out of Westminster. They frame it as fair funding rather than a request for a handout.

What fair funding means

ap Iorwerth wants resources split in a way that feels equitable, plus the powers to build a future for the people the three of them represent.

“making sure that resource is shared in a way that is equitable, that feels fair”

The powers on his list

He named three he wants moved out of Westminster: natural resources, policing, and justice.

Policing is the odd one out

Policing is already devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Wales it stays reserved to Westminster, which is exactly why ap Iorwerth is asking for it.

Distinct nations, shared asks

He was careful to say the three are not one bloc, each with its own direction, before listing where their interests line up.

“we have distinct nations with our own trajectories and our own priorities”

Child poverty and renewables

The cooperation he pointed to was practical, not constitutional: Scotland on child poverty, Northern Ireland on the economics of renewable energy.

The timing is not an accident

The summit lands days after Andy Burnham was forced to definitively rule out a fresh Scottish referendum, following a slip at Prime Minister's Questions.

The test he set

Burnham said a new vote would need majority public support in Scotland, comparing the bar to Northern Ireland's, and told MPs he did not think it had been met.

“a majority of public support”

Curtice called it

Elections expert Sir John Curtice then said the SNP and its allies could argue that bar had in fact been cleared, using recent polling.

Then came the hard no

With his own test turned against him, Burnham was pushed into a blunter position: there will be no new referendum.

The Tory reply

Shadow Scotland secretary Harriet Cross dismissed the meeting outright, and said Swinney would work with anyone, Sinn Féin included, to get his lifelong dream.

“John Swinney's separatist summit is nothing more than another blatant plot to break up the UK.”

A distraction, she argues

Cross says Swinney has been emboldened by Burnham's remarks and is using the constitution to pull attention away from his own government's record.

“using his constitutional obsession to distract from the SNP's long list of failures”