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In Andy Burnham, Westminster has a Prime Minister-elect who hasn’t actually been elected. And in Keir Starmer, it has a lame-duck leader who’s attempting to force billions of pounds worth of changes to key budgets in his last days in office. One management, two guvnors – and both are treating Wales as an afterthought in their planning.

Let’s start with Starmer: his determination to break all purdah precedents and to make key (largely uncosted) announcements at the very end of his premiership will leave more than a headache for his successor. It’ll leave a black hole of billions, and it’s been hinted that capital budgets will be raided to help fund defence spending. It could have a knock-on effect on Welsh and Scottish budgets set aside for schools and hospitals, and no advance warning was given to devolved administrations. These rushed-through plans cannot be financed at the expense of Welsh public services – our nation deserves better than to be treated with such disdain.

And what can we expect from Andy Burnham? The self-styled ‘King of the North’ has talked positively about devolving powers and fixing funding in the past, but he already seems to be rowing back on key pledges before he even gets the keys to Number 10.

Let me be honest here: I am still hoping that Burnham will succeed, that he’ll be true to his earlier word, and will start to show Wales and the other nations of the UK the respect we’ve never yet been shown by Westminster and Whitehall. But his talk today seems to focus more and more on ‘regions’ of England: yet again, Wales is pushed to the periphery, a place out of sight and mind. Warm words in the past won’t cut it: we need action now. In May, Wales voted overwhelmingly for a new era of politics, of new powers and prominence for our nation – and the new UK Prime Minister would do well to remember that.

And so this bizarre period of waiting lingers on. A time when the old reign of Starmer is ending, but the new regime of Burnham struggles to be born. The new Welsh Government has made clear that it will work constructively with any UK Prime Minister to make things better for our people, and we stand ready to do just that. Over to you now, Mr Burnham – and please remember that actions speak louder than words.