Mark Drakeford accuses UK Labour Government of sabotaging Welsh Labour’s election chances

Martin Shipton

Former First Minister Mark Drakeford has accused the UK Labour Government of sabotaging Welsh Labour’s Senedd election campaign by pushing back against devolution and a fair deal for Wales.

In an article published this evening by Nation.Cymru, Mr Drakeford provides a devastating critique explaining why he believes the number of Labour Senedd Members has reduced from 29 to just 9, even though the Senedd has increased in numbers from 60 to 96.

He also suggests what the party in Wales needs to do to make a recovery.

After listing 10 other factors he thinks impacted negatively on Welsh Labour’s support, the ex-Welsh Labour leader, who did not seek re-election this month, writes: “I have kept what I regarded as the most fundamental reason for Welsh Labour’s catastrophic result until last.

“Devolution has been Labour’s project. Devolution is the ground on which Welsh Labour was created. Devolution is the policy which most clearly differentiates the Labour Party from its unionist opponents on the right and its separatist opponents on the left. Devolution has been the choice of the solid majority of the Welsh population who want Welsh voters to be directly in charge of those decisions which affect only people in Wales, while continuing to remain part of the wider United Kingdom for the purpose of defence, foreign affairs, border security and social protection.

“While in opposition Keir Starmer commissioned former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to prepare a report on future constitutional arrangements within the UK. He endorsed the report and promised its implementation.

“UK Labour’s manifesto, at the 2024 General Election contained specific commitment to carry forward the devolution settlement in Wales. But in the two years which have followed, none of that has happened.

“At a time when, increasingly, it became imperative for Labour to reassert and refurbish our reputation as the party of devolution, exactly the opposite happened. No meaningful progress on the devolution of youth justice and probation. No progress on devolution of the Crown Estate. Reform of the fiscal framework which left Wales with less than the Tories had provided to Scotland.

“Instead, a rampant use of the powers which allow UK Ministers to spend money in devolved areas without the consent of the Senedd and a refusal to consider codification of the Sewell convention which even the previous Conservative government had been prepared to discuss. “Put simply, Welsh Labour went into the 2026 Senedd election with the ground cut from under us. It was simply implausible to argue, as had always previously been possible, that a vote for Labour offered the best of both worlds: a powerful Senedd in a successful United Kingdom. Our unique selling point had been taken off the shelf.”

Catastrophic defeat

Other reasons cited by Mark Drakeford for Welsh Labour’s catastrophic defeat include:

* The ‘Time for a change’ slogan used by opposition parties had an increased potency after Labour’s 27 years in office;

* The sense of perma-crisis in the wake of Covid and Brexit involving the war in Ukraine, the worst of the cost of the cost of living crisis and a war in the Middle East;

* Self-inflicted wounds including the Vaughan Gething scandal;

* Too much time spent courting those who were never going to vote Labour, while alienating those who might;

* Forgetting the single most important lesson of the first two decades of devolution: never allow a space to the left of politics which could be exploited by others;

* The myth that a Labour vote in so-called “heartland” areas is somehow more important than a Labour vote elsewhere. There is a coalition of support than can secure victory;

* Following the Caerphilly by-election, Plaid Cymru ruthlessly exploited the notion that only a vote for them could defeat Reform;

* The unpopularity of Starmer’s Government;

* The serial abandonment of the prospectus on which Starmer was elected Leader of the Labour Party; and

* The removal of the winter fuel allowance became totemic for those who believed the wrong kind of Labour Government had been elected.

‘New coalition’

According to Mark Drakeford, the way to revive the fortunes of Welsh Labour entails nurturing a new coalition “that represents voters who are determined that Reform should never speak for them, who opposed Brexit, who want to see a modern, outward-looking Wales, confident in our own identity and welcoming of others to share in it. These are those fellow citizens who believe that government exists to ensure that markets serve the interests of the people, not the other way around. These are the natural supporters of devolution, who reject nationalism of whatever persuasion.

“They want a Labour Party which authentically stands up for Wales and is unafraid to do so when that places us at odds with the UK Government, whatever its political persuasion.”