Senior Labour figure challenges calls to scrap Welsh Secretary role

Mark Mansfield

Former Welsh Office minister Sir Wayne David has challenged calls from within Labour to abolish the role of Welsh Secretary, warning that removing the post could leave Wales marginalised within the UK.

Calling for Welsh Labour to rebuild after its Senedd election defeat, the former MP said retaining the Wales Office was essential to ensuring Welsh interests were represented around the Cabinet table.

His intervention follows calls from former Counsel General Mick Antoniw to scrap the post.

In March, Mr Antoniw described the Wales Office as a “pre-devolution setup” and said a Welsh Secretary was no longer needed.

Writing for LabourList on Monday, Sir Wayne accused the Plaid Cymru government of seeking to weaken the union by renewing calls to abolish the Welsh Secretary and Wales Office.

“Unfortunately, this call is being supported by some Welsh Labour figures,” he said, without naming those he had in mind.

Sir Wayne said Welsh Labour needed to examine honestly why it had been reduced to nine seats in the enlarged 96-member Senedd in May.

He attributed the defeat to both the unpopularity of the UK Labour government at the time and the Welsh Government’s record after 27 years in power.

“What is now important is that Welsh Labour not only examines honestly the reasons for its defeat, but works to rebuild for the future,” he wrote.

He argued that the party should reclaim its identity as the party that established devolution, while reaffirming a relationship with Westminster based on partnership rather than separation.

“The Welsh Labour view is, and must remain, fundamentally different to Plaid’s,” he said.

“We support devolution, not as a step to the break-up of the United Kingdom, but because it is a better and more democratic way to govern Wales and, indeed, Britain. Our vision is about co-operation not conflict.”

Sir Wayne, who served as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales, argued that the Welsh Secretary remained important because substantial areas of government policy were reserved to Westminster.

“The role of Secretary of State for Wales is to ensure the voice of Wales is heard loudly and clearly at the highest levels of the UK Government,” he wrote.

“Many areas of decision-making are not devolved to Wales and Wales receives an annual block-grant from the Westminster government to fund public services. In these areas it is vital that Welsh interests are promoted within the UK government and around the cabinet table.”

He warned that abolishing the post and the Wales Office would risk marginalising Wales, arguing that intergovernmental cooperation alone could not fulfil the same role.

However, he also backed further transfers of responsibility to Cardiff Bay, identifying elements of justice and employment support as areas for change.

“Perhaps more significantly, Welsh Labour needs to argue for devolution ‘within’ Wales,” he said.

He argued that Wales’ regional differences needed greater recognition, with councils and regional consortia central to economic growth.

Election defeat

The disagreement over the Welsh Secretary’s role predates Labour’s election defeat.

Mr Antoniw’s March comments followed the emergence of a memo in which then Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged Cabinet colleagues to be prepared to take decisions and spend money across the UK’s nations even where devolved governments opposed this.

Several Labour Senedd backbenchers had already accused the UK Government of bypassing Welsh Ministers by directing funding to councils for town centre improvements.

Then First Minister Eluned Morgan defended retaining the Wales Office, but said it should be “the voice of Wales at the cabinet table” rather than “the UK government’s voice in Wales”.

She also confirmed that Welsh Ministers dealt directly with their UK counterparts rather than going through the Wales Office.

Following talks with Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Glasgow on Friday, current First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth reiterated that further devolution within Wales was a matter for the Senedd. Mr Burnham said regional structures were for Wales and Scotland to determine.