Wednesday, May 07, 2025
Desperate Welsh First Minister tacks left, but is it too late?
The paper says Eluned Morgan told them that she wanted Keir Starmer to rethink policy changes on welfare and the winter fuel allowance, and described the Labour party as a “messy family”:
Morgan argued that while the UK party had time to turn its fortunes around, the task was more urgent in Wales because the Senedd elections were only a year away.
Her comments came as an opinion poll suggested Labour was trailing in third place in Wales behind Plaid and Reform UK, with its worst vote share – 18% – since devolution a quarter of a century ago.
Morgan said of the poll: “That is a wake-up call, if ever we’ve seen one. It is a serious challenge for us. It’s a serious challenge for UK Labour. We all need to think very seriously about delivery on the things that matter to people the most.”
The first minister spoke after a passionate speech launching the election campaign and what she called a “red Welsh way”. She said: “We’ve got a year to go and I’m losing patience. They [UK Labour] are very keen for us to promote partnership in power. We are keen to play with them when it comes to partnership in power and it’s already delivered £1.6bn extra for our public services, but it’s not enough and we need to see more from them.
“And time is ticking for us. They’ve got time to turn things around. We have very little time to turn things around in Wales. So our patience is running out.
“I’m determined to make a change for the people of Wales and I haven’t got much time. I am impatient. I need things done. We’re tacking to the left here, we’re saying that we want to make sure that the centre of gravity in Wales is to the left.”
Morgan said there was no split with UK Labour but compared the party to a “messy family”. She said: “We all come from families that are complicated these days and we fall out within our families but we’re still family. We still turn up to each other’s weddings and funerals but in between there may be a bit of a falling out and that’s not the end of the world.”
As well as appealing to UK Labour to think again about welfare cuts and removing the winter fuel allowance, she called for the UK government not to interfere with areas of policy devolved to Wales.
She said: “What we need is respect for devolution. When the Tories were in charge, they disrespected the devolution settlement. We’re a bit concerned that’s continued under Labour. We need devolution to be respected because it was hard fought for and it is the settled will of the Welsh people/.”
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Welsh Labour's problem is that these are just words. Those people who have been deprived of their winter fuel allowance, or their disability benefit, those who are facing losing their business or their job because of the increase in employers' national insurance payments, or who are struggling to pay massive energy and council tax bills while public services deteriorate around them, or those children slipping into poverty because of the two-child benefit cap won't give a damn whether Eluned Morgan is tacking left or not.
People will vote next year in accordance with their lived experience, and Welsh Labour will need to do a lot more than talk about a complicated family to change that.
