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Welsh Labour leader backs calls for winter fuel payment cut rethink

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The leader of Labour in Wales has called for the cuts to winter fuel allowance to be reviewed in a landmark speech.

But despite the intervention, Number 10 have ruled out changing the winter fuel policy.

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said it had been a “difficult decision” but that there would be “no change” to the policy.

Politics latest: Downing Street denies winter fuel rethink

Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan, who became the first female first minister last August, also called for “respect” for Welsh devolution at an event on Tuesday to mark a year until the Senedd election.

She said Labour governments both ends of the M4 were “a partnership in power” and that the Labour government in Westminster was making changes that were “transforming lives in Wales“.

“Let’s be honest though, it hasn’t all been popular,” she said, of the party’s record since last July’s General Election win.

“The cuts in winter fuel allowance is something that comes up time and again and I hope the UK government will rethink this policy.”

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Sir Keir Starmer and Baroness Eluned Morgan on a visit to a wind farm in Wales last year. Pic: PA

Baroness Morgan said Westminster welfare reform proposals were causing “serious concern” in Wales where there is “a higher number of people reliant on disability benefits than elsewhere”.

She called for “respect for devolution” which was “hard won, deeply rooted and absolutely non-negotiable”.

“That means that the UK government should never act in devolved areas without Welsh government consent,” she said.

“We’re not happy that this is continuing under Labour.”

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‘We’ve got a battle on our hands’

In January, the first minister told Sky News she was expecting more money for Wales’s railways and criticised “unfair” HS2 funding.

Turning her sights to next May’s elections – when Wales will elect 96 members for the first time – Baroness Morgan said the vote would be a “battle for the future of Wales”.

She said the rise of Reform UK in many parts of the country has “put the whole shape of the future of Wales at stake” – and she accused Nigel Farage’s party of wanting to “use Wales to make a point in the English press”.

Responding to the speech, a Reform UK spokesperson said Welsh Labour was “more focused on slogans than solutions” and had “failed to deliver meaningful change for the people of Wales”.

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Eluned Morgan in the Senedd chamber. Pic: Senedd Commission

Making several references to comedy series Gavin & Stacey, the first minister said there would be “times when what’s right for Essex, is not right for Barry”.

She said “a vote for Plaid risks letting Reform take power” and added that Welsh Labour was the “one true party of Wales” – but Plaid Cymru accused her of a “desperate attempt” to “reset her premiership”.

First minister parks Labour bus on Plaid ground

With calls for a “fair deal” for Wales, the first minister has parked the Labour bus firmly on Plaid territory.

While Welsh Labour has always been, in the FM’s own words, “proudly distinct”, so many of the statements made in today’s speech could have been by a Plaid Cymru leader.

But instead, they were the words of the Welsh Labour leader – an effort, perhaps, to appeal to soft Welsh nationalists, those who may not back independence outright but would consider voting for Plaid Cymru.

She even made reference to Tryweryn – when the Welsh village of Capel Celyn was flooded in 1965 to supply water to Liverpool – a moment which has long been a symbol of the nationalist movement in Wales.

The Labour Party has won the most votes in Welsh elections for more than 100 years – a point Baroness Morgan was keen to emphasise.

But the significance of her intervention, where she called out some of Keir Starmer’s more unpopular polices, shows she’s acutely aware of the very real threat posed by both Plaid and Reform UK to her party’s continued electoral success.

It comes off the back of last week’s local election results in England, and with polls showing a surge in support for Reform in Wales too.

With only a year to go until the Senedd election, the question now is whether Baroness Eluned Morgan can get any concessions from her Westminster colleagues, or whether the “change” that Labour promised will mean a change of government in Wales.

During the 49-minute speech, Baroness Morgan also called for further funding to make Wales’s coal tips safer, a “fair share” of the Clean Steel Fund to support the country’s steel communities, and the devolution of the Crown Estate.

She also said that the Barnett Formula, which decides how much money Wales receives from Westminster, is “outdated” and “needs to change”.

“Solidarity has to work both ways. It’s time for a funding system that recognises our needs, respects our people and reflects our reality,” she added.

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Speaking of Welsh Labour’s relationship with the Westminster party going forward, Baroness Morgan said her government would work “with the UK government” on issues where they agree but would “hold [their] ground” where they don’t.

But she added: “I am proudly married to my nation and I’m going to put my nation first, ahead of the extended family.

“It’s nation and the people of Wales before party for me.”

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