Mark Drakeford and Alun Michael are the latest Welsh Labour politicians to call out UK government decisions. With Senedd elections creeping over the horizon, what should Welsh Labour do to avoid losing their grip?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00A number of Welsh Labour backbenchers as well as ministers have criticised the UK government
00:05over cuts to benefits as well as increases in national insurance contributions. Mark
00:10Drakeford has joined the growing list of Welsh Labour politicians to call out their UK counterparts
00:15over recent decisions, adding to cross-border tensions inside the Labour Party.
00:20The benefit cuts have been the biggest stories for the last week, but national insurance
00:24increases have been looming for some time and came into effect in April. There's some
00:28complicated maths involving the Barnett formula, which is how funding between England and Wales
00:33is figured out, which has meant that Wales will receive £65m less than we should because
00:38we have a proportionally higher public sector workforce in Wales.
00:43Welsh Finance Minister Mark Drakeford has said the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves was wrong
00:47to do it this way and we should have been compensated for the actual costs, not the
00:51Barnett share of costs in England.
00:53Given Wales has been politically dominated by Labour for over a century now, there was
00:58some hope that with a Labour government in Wales and in Westminster, there would be a
01:02chance for collaboration and easy communication between the governments. But, as of now, it's
01:07been anything but.
01:08First Minister Eluned Morgan has said in the past that there are things that her party
01:12and the Westminster arm agree on and there are some things they don't, but has insisted
01:15she is in close communication with UK counterparts.
01:21Alan Michael, an often outspoken Welsh Labour Senedd member, has said he believes recent
01:25PIP cuts are a mistake and wants to see Wales protected from the damaging costs of these
01:29decisions.
01:31Senedd elections are only a year away now and the way it's going, Welsh Labour will
01:35need to fix these problems or find a more pragmatic solution if they want to keep their
01:39century-long hold of Welsh politics.
01:41James D. Watkins, reporting for Local TV.