Gareth Lewis: Keir Starmer, Eluned Morgan meet as problems loom

Last year there were cuts across the board to keep the NHS ticking and trains running.

Then it was easy for Welsh Labour ministers to blame the Tories and their “mismanagement of the economy”.

But that’s less likely to wash in the long run with Labour and Labour in power – and opposition parties in Wales are waiting to seize on it.

Throw into the mix that the FM will need support from one of the opposition parties to get the budget through the Senedd.

Steel jobs are a more imminent problem with the last blast furnace at Port Talbot due to close in September.

Despite criticising it, the new UK Labour government is essentially carrying on with the same plan brought in by the previous Conservative government to move to greener steel and mitigate job losses.

The first test of how voters judge the effort will fall not on Sir Keir, but on Ms Morgan at the Senedd election in 2026.

There is a school of thought that a stand-up row with her Labour colleagues at Westminster wouldn’t do the FM any harm.

It might be Labour and Labour, but “we’re the Labour on your side” kind of thing…

Given the scale of some of Wales’ issues any row needn’t be a contrived one.

It might have been a grey old day in Cardiff when the PM and the FM met.

But the next few months really are going to be colourful.