'It is starting to seem like Wales is just a convenient backdrop for Keir Starmer'

It must be annoying for senior politicians like Keir Starmer when journalists want to ask difficult questions.

The Prime Minister was in Cardiff on Friday to attend a carefully choreographed press event about the government’s child poverty strategy as well as to attend the British and Irish Council.

At a family centre in the city’s Ely suburb, which is receiving £2m of funding from the Welsh Government to expand, remodel and refurbish, he and First Minister Eluned Morgan met families and spoke to the media.

This was a visit designed to talk about one thing, child poverty and the government’s new strategy designed both to tackle it and justify the extra tax everyone will have to pay to fund lifting the two-child benefit cap.

To that end, broadcast cameras were allowed to film families at the centre. Radio and written journalists were held outside that room and allowed one question each in a group interview.

For the network TV journalists there aiming to file packages for the evening news on the child poverty strategy, this may work for everyone.

But for the Welsh media, who do not follow the Prime Minister around every day, and have serious questions about Wales they wish to ask him, it doesn’t. Moreover, it exposes the fact that Wales, and Cardiff in this case, was just a convenient location for the PM to use as a backdrop.

Keir Starmer’s team didn’t give our reporter enough time to ask his questions. Nor did the Prime Minister trouble himself to properly address the issue that he did ask about - the accusation by 11 Labour Senedd Members that the PM is undermining devolution.

Their argument is that the Prime Minister has not taken forward any measures to improve the devolution settlement but is undermining Cardiff Bay by directly funding Welsh councils in a devolved area of responsibility.

If the Prime Minister had a track record of showing he understood Welsh issues and the role he can play in helping to address them, or if he had a strong record of facing up to questions about these issues, none of this would matter very much.

But on serious issues from rail funding to questions about his approach to devolution, the Prime Minister has shown little interest in Wales or inclination to do the very simple things within his power to help.

Rather like our journalist’s questions, it is starting to seem like Wales is just a bit of an annoyance to Mr Starmer unless it is happy to be just a convenient backdrop for an interview.