First what? Labour blasted after getting Mark Drakeford’s title wrong at conference

The Labour Party have been blasted online after getting Mark Drakeford’s title wrong in two different ways on the chyron introducing him at the party’s conference in Brighton.

They both misspelled First Minister as ‘First Minsiter’ and also called him both AM and MS – the old Assembly Member title and the new Member of the Senedd title.

The blooper led to mirth and anger online that no one at the conference had thought to check the title of Labour’s most senior elected politician.

“He’s the most senior Labour politician in these islands, and the organisers of the Labour Conferencecan’t even be bothered to spellcheck his title, or to confirm with someone – *anyone* – in Wales as to the correct suffix for a Member of the Senedd,” Owen Williams said.

Labour for an Independent Wales member Ben Gwalchmai said: “I’m in stitches and I’m surprisingly annoyed at how much they did Mark dirty.”

Janet Henderson wondered whether “English Labour don’t quite know what to do with a successful Labour leader” or whether their attitude was “Wales is so insignificant we won’t bother”.

‘Ambitious’

In his speech, Mark Drakeford branded the UK Government as one of the “most awful” that “we have ever seen”.

The First Minister said it was incompetent to “its core”  and accused it of having “visceral reactionary instincts at home or abroad”.

He told the conference that the “future is different in Wales” because of the “ambitious” policies his government had put in place.

These included free prescriptions, free childcare, abolishing the right to buy council houses, and putting the railways back under public ownership.

He argued that a Labour government in Westminster would treat devolution as the “UK’s greatest strength, not its greatest mistake.”

Mark Drakeford said: “The future is different in Wales because of the ambitious policies Welsh Labour in government has put in place. Free prescriptions and free breakfasts in our primary schools. Free childcare for working parents.

“We didn’t have to reintroduce bursaries for nurses because they were never scrapped in Wales. Fracking doesn’t have to be prevented in Wales because it’s never been allowed.

“We’re building council houses again in Wales and we’ve abolished the right to buy. Our children are protected from physical punishment. And our railways are back under public control.”