Welsh politicians take on Eluned Morgan in rowdy final FMQs

Emily Price 

Members of the Sixth Senedd have grilled First Minister Eluned Morgan for the final time before Wales’ Parliament is dissolved for the election in May.

The Senedd’s speaker, Llywydd Elin Jones earned some laughs on Tuesday (March 24) when she told MSs she was adopting a “let it all go last week of term approach”.

The session proved more chaotic compared with the previous five years of First Minister’s Questions, with many MSs launching into election mode during their contributions.

For the first time during FMQs, leader of the opposition Darren Millar spoke in Welsh in order to make a point about recent offensive comments by Reform leader Nigel Farage.

Welsh speaking Conservative Tom Giffard had also used his final FMQs slot to take a pop at Reform over Farage’s comments.

In a paid for video, the Clacton MP had described Welsh people as “foreign speakers” adding that he was “gutted” to be unable to attend a wedding because half of the guests were Welsh.

Speaking in Welsh, Tory leader Darren Millar described the clip as an “insult” adding that Farage “doesn’t care about Wales at all” and will “say anything for money”.

Responding, First Minister Eluned Morgan said: “Duw duw duw Darren, you have been hiding your Welsh for five years!

“It’s about time you use you’re Welsh language skills – and I give you credit for doing so.”

Millar used the rest of his time on the floor to hit out at the FM over cost of living pressures and to reel off pledges his party was making to Welsh voters ahead of the May 7 election.

Historic

Hitting back playfully, Morgan asked how many Welsh MPs there currently were in Westminister.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth was up next, pointing out that it could be the last session in which a Labour minister answers questions from opposition leaders.

The upcoming Senedd election will be the most consequential since the dawn of devolution in 1999 with more MSs, new ‘super constituencies’ and a closed proportional list voting system.

Polls are predicting a historic collapse in support for Welsh Labour and the party is projected to lose its 27-year grip on power.

Recent voting intention surveys have put Plaid Cymru and Reform UK neck-and-neck.

Ap Iorwerth said the people of Wales were viewing the election through a “new lens”.

Pandemic

The First Minister said she thought Welsh people would take the time to consider what Labour had delivered for them in the shadow of a pandemic, Brexit, four Prime Ministers and inflation in the face of the Ukraine war.

Hitting out at Plaid, she said ap Iorwerth’s party had had five years to develop new ideas for Wales – but would spend their first 100 days in government “having a little think” of what they should do.

Morgan branded Plaid’s leader “arrogant” and accused him of counting his votes already.

Ap Iorwerth responded: “Lots of people are watching this session today – and the tone of the First Minister does her as much disservice as her lack of action for the people of Wales.

“It would be easy for me to just stand here and criticise the record of this Labour Government.

“Too easy. We have rehearsed the state of the NHS, schools and the economy so many times, and the excuses are like a broken record.”

‘Ideological’

Elsewhere during FMQs, Reform UK’s first Senedd Member Laura Anne Jones was faced with jeers as she launched into claims about “ideological net-zero targets”.

Responding, Morgan said she was opposed to “ideological positions that fail to recognise that climate change is real”.

She said: “Climate change is happening. Have you not looked at the scientific evidence just this week, just this week? Human-made climate change is real, and you’re continuing to deny its existence.”

‘Belittled’

Plaid Cymru’s Delyth Jewell used her time on the floor to warn against voices in Welsh politics that seek to “denigrate and belittle” Welsh devolution.

She said: “Today seems a time to take stock and see where we are headed.

“This Senedd is Wales’s voice. It was hard fought for, hard won. There are voices in our politics that seek to denigrate and belittle us.

“How damaging and dismaying it is that the current Prime Minister seems one of them.

“Keir Starmer, like Boris Johnson before him, seems happy to sideline this Senedd, to rebuff calls for powers over policing, over transport, to deny us the billions we’re owed from HS2, to tell his Westminster Cabinet they can spend in devolved areas without the Welsh Government’s consent.

“When Westminster politicians so devalue our voices, it is not an institution they are insulting, it is a nation; a nation of people who deserve so much better than the current settlement they are getting; the nation of Wales, which merits more than being left on a perpetual periphery.”

Change

Morgan claimed Labour Senedd Members had never changed their views based on who was in power in Westminister.

She said: “We were clear that the two-child benefit cap was not something that we agreed with, and we weren’t going to change our tune because Westminster was doing something different.

“How great it was then when not only did they change their minds, but they came to Wales to make that announcement.

“That was an example of them listening, understanding and recognising that we are a party with values, and we will stick to those values irrespective of what happens in Westminster.”

Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies also took to the floor to press the FM in a final exchange.

He used his time to lambast the “separatist agenda that the nationalists want to push” to break up the UK.

‘Breiteer’

From the backbenches a Senedd Member could be heard heckling: “Says the Brexiteer!”

The former Tory Senedd leader had fronted opposition questions for much of the Sixth Senedd term, but was toppled by his own Conservative colleagues in 2024 following concerns over his erratic and offensive conduct on social media.

Wednesday (March 25) will mark the final plenary session before the Sixth Senedd is officially dissolved for the upcoming election.

Easter recess will begin on March 30 until April 7.

Immediately after midnight on April 8 the Sixth Senedd will be dissolved – meaning all the seats in the Chamber will become vacant.

MSs will stop representing their constituencies or regions and will immediately revert to being members of the public – losing all the privileges associated with being a Member.

On May 7, Welsh people will vote for who they want to represent them in the Seventh Senedd.