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In a speech to the Plaid Cymru conference, the First Minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said his government would pursue a preventative health agenda across departments and make tackling poverty a guiding mission. He warned of a tough budget because of real-terms reductions in UK government funding, higher inflation, economic uncertainty and spending pressures, and said efficiency, productivity and savings would be sought by consolidating and streamlining services. He called on the UK Chancellor to reverse planned real-terms cuts to Wales, act on the cost of living and turn warm words on rail investment into action, noting Wales receives only 1% of rail investment and demanding HS2 funding owed to Wales be brought forward now.

He said a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the SNP and Sinn Féin leaders John Swinney, Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill, based on the principle that people in their nations decide their own future, a right he said was supported by the Senedd but rejected by the UK Prime Minister. He described his first meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham as positive but said new powers for England's mayors and regions risked bypassing Wales, and confirmed he had written to the Prime Minister with a formal ask for a new deal for Wales, including equal footing with Scotland and powers over policing and justice, rail infrastructure, the Crown Estate, fiscal fairness and welfare. He also discussed community empowerment and the Phoenix Centre in Townhill, Swansea, a community right to buy scheme, and education plans including a foundational literacy and numeracy plan from birth to 16, a library space in every primary school by 2030, and a skills strategy informed by a national skills audit. He expressed support for Ukraine against Putin and for Gaza against what he called the Israeli government's heinous genocide, and condemned masked men at Portsmouth and Dover and Reform and Nigel Farage-linked politics.

After the speech, the presenter noted he had begun by discussing resilience of emergency services after summer wildfires, plans for 12 and a half hours of free childcare in every local authority by the end of the year, and a 30% cut in business rates. BBC correspondent Thomas Morgan said a Welsh independence referendum could not proceed without Westminster support and that Andy Burnham had recently rejected the idea for now. He said nationalist first ministers in Scotland and Northern Ireland were meeting regularly and collectively pressing Westminster for more money and devolution with a view to independence, and that the First Minister's letter formally asked for devolution of policing and justice, the Crown Estate and rail infrastructure. Morgan added that Russia's foreign minister had questioned the future of the UK after the devolved leaders' meeting, and that on the Senedd budget the Plaid Cymru government was a minority administration struggling for opposition support, though Welsh Labour had said it would be willing to work with Plaid on a deal in future.