Friday, January 23, 2026
Are Welsh Labour in panic mode?
The UK government has refused to devolve control of the crown estate, refused to give Wales powers over railways or reclassify rail projects like HS2 so that we get the Barnett consequentials and refused every request for extra powers including over the justice system.
In that time Eluned Morgan and her predecessors have talked up the benefits of having a Labour government at both ends of the M4 despite the fact that so far this collaboration has produced very little for Wales.
Now, with Labour tanking in the polls, she and her colleagues appear to have woken up. The BBC reports that Morgan has publicly come out to call on the Prime Minister to help stop pro-independence parties winning the next Senedd election by giving her country more powers.
The broadcaster says that the First Minister has warned that the "threat to the United Kingdom will become real" if parties wanting to leave the union were leading in both Scotland and Wales:
Speaking to the Institute for Government earlier in the day, Morgan said the most recent opinion poll gave "two pro independence parties Plaid and the Greens a majority in Wales".
"Separatism is now very much on the agenda in our nation," she said.
She said the significance of that was "not reverberating as it should".
"Support for independence tends to rise when politics feels stuck or uncertain, and it falls when people see devolution deliver."
Devolution is the "best way to lower the temperature and raise trust", she said.
"The UK government can play a leading role in helping us to resist separatism and the break up of the union. They can support us by giving us the tools to help improve life for the people in Wales."
Following her speech, Morgan said the "threat to the United Kingdom will become real" if pro-independence parties came out top in Wales as well as in Scotland, where pro-independence SNP are hoping to return to government following May's Holyrood election.
Morgan apparently used her speech to make a list of requests for more powers and money from Westminster, as well as a "new deal for devolution" including those elusive powers over natural resources, the Crown Estate, and policing and justice, which have mostly been rejected by the UK government.
There is a hint of panic in this long-awaited public break with the UK government. Unfortunately, it looks like it might be too little, too late.
