Labour won't 'fiddle' with police powers - Stevens
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Problems with crime are too urgent to begin "fiddling" by handing over the responsibility of police, courts and prisons to Wales, Welsh Labour's most senior Westminster politician has said.
Shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens said no one "would be forgiven for trying to rip up and reconstruct the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice at a time when crime is blighting our streets".
Labour's manifesto for the UK general election doesn't include support for the devolution of criminal justice, despite longstanding calls from the Labour-led Welsh government.
The Welsh Conservatives said Labour should be focused on health and education.
Plaid Cymru politician Heledd Fychan said Ms Stevens was laughing "in the face of Labour commissioned reports which make the positive case for devolving policing and justice".
Speaking to Catrin Haf Jones on S4C's Y Byd yn ei Le programme, Ms Stevens said the Welsh public was "concerned about crime and law and order, and I can understand why".
"When we have had 14 years of Conservative government and we've seen what they've done to the policing and criminal justice system, where we've had 20,000 police officers cut from the street.
"We have got victims of rape who are waiting a thousand days for their case to be heard.
"If you're looking through the lens of that through the criminal justice system you're going to want things to be fixed."
She added: "Fiddling around with structures and systems when there are urgent things to be done to fix things, which is what our people's priorities are in Wales."
Ms Stevens added: "Of course I trust my colleagues in Wales, but devolution is an agreement.
"It's not a demand. Devolution is not an event, it's a process."
Labour's manifesto said it would "explore" the devolution of probation, and "consider" the devolution of youth justice.
The cautious language was despite a report by former prime minister Gordon Brown which gave support to both proposals.
Defending the manifesto commitment, Ms Stevens said: "If you don't think about them before you do them you end up with a disaster."
Giving justice and policing powers to the Welsh government and the Senedd was backed by a former lord chief justice in a 2019 report commissioned by the Welsh government.
Lord John Thomas of Cwmgiedd had said the split of responsibilities between Westminster and Cardiff "has created pointless complexity, confusion and incoherence in justice and policing in Wales".
A further independent commission backed the devolution of policing.
But in response to it, Ms Stevens said back in January that Labour would be focusing at the next election on "the things that matter".
One of the commission's co-chairs, Laura McAllister, said on X: "Benefits of devolving police, probation, criminal justice have already been thoroughly and properly researched and evidenced.
"So, it's insulting to talk about 'exploring' and 'considering'."
She questioned whether "anyone" from Welsh Labour "have even an ounce of input" into the manifesto.
The Welsh Conservatives said: “Talk of the devolution of further powers is yet another distraction from Labour.
“Instead of tinkering with our constitution, Labour should be focused on the mess they have made in our NHS, where we have the longest waiting lists in the UK and in our education system where we had the steepest decline in PISA results.”
Plaid Cymru's Heledd Fychan said Ms Stevens' "insistence that devolving justice amounts only to fiddling around with structures and systems laughs in the face of Labour commissioned reports which make the positive case for devolving policing and justice.
"The interview displayed nothing short of a patronising and contemptuous attitude towards Wales by Keir Starmer’s top team."
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