Why is Labour killing its own creation?
Desmond Clifford
It may be that time’s up anyway, but Labour’s doing everything it can to lose the next Senedd election. Bored, undermined, divided, Labour has pointed the aircraft’s nose towards the ground and activated the autopilot.
For 25 years Rhodri Morgan, Carwyn Jones and Mark Drakeford led devolution with proper autonomy, both from the UK Government and the UK Labour Party. The craven surrender of that tradition and the docile embrace of branch-status in a UK Labour party which staggers in its ignorance and contempt towards Wales has been painful to witness. As Alun Davies MS noted in the Senedd, Welsh Ministers have been humiliated by their own Whitehall colleagues.
I salute the 11 Labour Senedd Members who wrote to Keir Starmer asking he respect devolution. But crikey, how did we get here? The Welsh party asking the UK party and government to honour its own creation?
The First Minister “raised” the matter with the Prime Minister at Chequers. I don’t doubt it but, just occasionally, a fist smacked on the table is the right approach.
Let’s give him benefit of the doubt. It may be that Starmer blundered, ignorantly but without malice. If so, the smacked fist would jolt him back to understanding, especially when the First Minister spelt out how she is undermined by, of all people in the world, the UK Labour Government.
If Starmer didn’t blunder, but acted with deliberation, the table-fist would serve as a gauntlet and signal that the Welsh Government will not lie prone while HMG walks all over it.
It’s easier to explain the Higgs Boson particle, or the properties of dark matter, than the unravelling of Welsh Labour this last year or two.
Drakeford left the shop in good order when he stood down as First Minister exactly when he said he would. His ratings were down a little on the Covid high point and the strong election result he delivered in 2021, but nothing beyond a routine mid-term range.
Vaughan Gething could scarcely have hoped for a stronger legacy on which to build. A pragmatic co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru had delivered three budgets and Senedd Reform. Manifesto delivery was well in-hand. A UK Labour Government was in view. The Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales provided a text for the parties to draw on and a near-term agenda for the Welsh Government and its incoming UK colleagues.
Gething proved deficient in the quality that matters most in a First Minister: judgement. He alienated many party colleagues before the leadership contest was even finished and, as First Minister, he quickly alienated the Senedd.
He should have resigned with dignity, as Alun Michael did, the day he lost the confidence of the Senedd.
Instead, he lingered without credibility or purpose, driving a widening wedge among his Labour colleagues and went only when resignations forced him out. His legacy is a gaping hole below the waterline and a sinking Welsh Labour Party.
Jeremy Miles
Jeremy Miles was going to stand again for the leadership, then didn’t. Now he’s leaving the Senedd altogether. After Drakeford, he was head and shoulders above the rest and their last chance to reverse fortunes. His departure is Labour’s loss.
Eluned Morgan was persuaded to grasp the chalice. She acted dutifully in what she saw as the best interests of her party. No glass ceiling was smashed, she wiggled through a cracked windowpane and a footnote will record she was elected neither by her party nor the public.
That limited sense of mandate is part of her difficulty in office.
The Welsh Government was inexplicably unprepared for the election of a Labour UK Government. There was no statement of ambitions, no list of Conservative wrongs to be righted, no plan for safeguarding and developing devolution. Nothing. It seems Keir Starmer gave scant thought to a Labour victory either.
I repeat: “inexplicable” is the word.
Any suggestion that constitutional practice matters is airily dismissed by the Welsh Government, in contrast to its backbenchers. The First Minister predicts a Plaid Cymru government will “whine” constantly about the UK Government. Why is this a criticism?
Whined
The Welsh Government whined for 14 years solid about the Tories. The First Minister ought to be whining herself. The UK Government’s systematic undermining of the Welsh Government is costing Welsh Labour votes and is one reason why they’re doing so badly. This is obvious to everyone except Keir Starmer and his Welsh proxies.
Only a couple of years ago Labour was celebrating one hundred years of electoral success in Wales (what’s the Welsh for hubris?). A century of support, unprecedented in European democracy.
For what reward? Side-lined by a UK Government taking Wales for granted, a land of limited options, a political dependency. There’s nothing a political party loves more than a client community and, with England’s Red Wall now so unreliable, Keir Starmer thinks he’s found one.
He feels free to parachute crony candidates into Welsh parliamentary seats.
He foisted on Wales the worst Secretary of State since John Redwood. Jo Stevens appears clueless about the country whose name features on her office’s brass plate.
There is no credible voice for Wales in the UK Government; small wonder they’re so ill-informed and prone to misjudgement. Nearly two years in, there’s no sign that the UK Government has the slightest interest in Wales or even basic respect for it. This would matter much less if they honoured their side of the devolution settlement.
Recently the UK Government has been using something called the United Kingdom Internal Market Act (UKIMA) to force its will in Wales. UKIMA was a piece of legislation introduced after Brexit to enable the Boris Johnson government to snatch powers which should correctly have transferred from the European Union to the Welsh Government and Senedd.
The Welsh Government opposed it tooth and nail. So did the Labour Opposition in Westminster, whose Shadow Minister for Brexit was – you couldn’t make this up – Keir Starmer.
Animal Farm
Remember the farmyard at the close of Orwell’s Animal Farm? “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but it was impossible to say which was which.”
It’s tragic. Devolution was conceived and delivered by Labour. People forget, but it was a struggle. The Ron Davies-Peter Hain-Win Griffiths-Rhodri Morgan generation fought hard to get devolution on the agenda and to keep it there.
Rhodri Morgan saved the project from early death and gave Welsh devolution personality, standing and self-respect. He created Welsh Labour when the word “Welsh” meant something. The divisions of today and the chasm between Labour’s Cardiff Bay cohort and its Whitehall should-be-colleagues speaks of tensions many believed were nailed years ago.
The actions of Starmer’s administration, and the Welsh Government’s tepid acquiescence, demonstrates with disillusioning clarity that Welsh Labour no longer has the desire or the will to defend devolution.
Increasingly, Welsh Labour is two parties. The split that matters isn’t left or right, but between those who believe in Wales and those who don’t.
For those who really believe in Wales and devolution, Labour has become a cold house.
How did it come to this?
Why did the party which had so much throw it away so cheaply?
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The Labour Party in power in Westminster is a hollow shell of the Socialists who used to fight for the working man. Aneurin Bevan would turn in his grave.
To see Starmer accepting and fiddling with Brexit, that has ripped the guts out of anything Britain ever stood for is to see a straw man leading a leaderless party. And this while the Wolves of Reform worry at the carcass of UK, and Welsh Labour flap impotently at the margins
The vote only asked about leaving the political union. Leaving the economic partnership in a pitiful attempt to rebuild the empire was a political choice of the Johnson administration.
Slightly more nuanced than that… the EU said “You want the economic union, you have to take the political union too”, UK said “not worth it.” There was to be “No cherry picking” this is a direct quote from French Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Who fought tooth and nail against the UK having some of the benefits but none of the costs as they put it. Brexit means Brexit, May’s favourite slogan, simply meant there was to be zero political union, while she walked that back in favor of getting at least some economic benefit, she was unable to get… Read more »
You say this but Labour has never actually been pro-EU. It was anti-EU when we joined (despite the application being under Harold Wilson. Hugh Gaitskell was not a fan at all. In fact Labour only supported the EEC and not the federalization of Europe known as the EU.) In the 1980s Labour campaigned, per its manifesto to take the UK out of the European Community. This manifesto commitment eventually gave way to using the EU as a protective shield against Margaret thatcher, i.e. subverting British democracy by using outside forces. Even Tony Blair, outwardly pro-EU but actually he wanted “pro-market”… Read more »
I would like to think that Bevan, were he alive now, would look at the present situation and agree that leaving the EU was the most stupid thing any country has done since Operation Barbarossa.
I agree with the overall sentiment of the article. Especially, I can’t see any reason why labour can’t justify it stance on not pursuing further devolution; starting with railway infrastructure, crown estate and justice. I can see reasons why they wouldn’t, but a labour government can’t remain silent on the issue. However one aspect missing from the article is the consideration that England overall performs better on healthcare outcomes, education results and economic productivity compared Wales, despite us having more spending per capita. Clearly we face challenges in outcomes like demographics, healthy life expectancy, cost of delivery etc – but… Read more »
Labour can’t justify it, but… I can.
“We don’t have the time, we’re busy fixing the chaos created by the last tory government, we’ll get around to it when we get around to it.”
They haven’t altered the current deal, they’ve simply enforced part of it (i.e their right to intervene in the national interest).
An appropriately coruscating analysis of the contempt the current uk labour govt has for Wales and for devolution. That said i think Desmond sees the early years of Labour’s role in devolution thru somewhat rose tinted spectacles. Those of us involved in the 97 referendum campaign will recall there were plenty of labour activists and branches who sat on their hands and were nowhere to be seen during the 6 week campaign leading up to September 18th itself. And while the likes of Ron Davies, Rhodri Morgan, Leighton Andrews (and Peter Hain) did their best to rally labour supporters behind… Read more »
The issue with Starmer performance is not just confined to the relationship with Wales.
London based organisations focus on race-to-the-bottom procurement and incentivize their staff through bonuses to pay the least, even if the suppliers enter bankruptcy and staff are paid poverty wages.
London has massive industrial relations issues. British Airways supply chain staff are paid minimum wage and get no sick pay https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2025/december/british-airways-cleaners-at-heathrow-to-strike-over-low-pay-this-christmas
Will Unite keep funding the Labour Party?
Maybe in 2026 Starmers issues will get much worse – the Birmingham unions are not happy https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/how-birmingham-bins-strike-unfolded-33136247.amp
And yet… checks notes… London usually votes Labour.
How did it come to this? Cronyism, and a critical lack of Welsh Labour talent after Mark Drakeford stood down.
Vikki Howell, Eluned Morgan… basically the only real talent left in Labour (in Wales). There is a certain problem. However, the problem is that the basically have nowhere else to cut their teeth, so what are we expecting from fresh faced inexperienced politicians who might not have a clue how to run a bread shop in a bakery. We really need more Mayors… Actual job for 5 years minimum (not Civil Service though this would also be useful) -> Councillor -> Council Leader (at least a member of the Cabinet) -> Mayor -> MP/MS-> Cabinet Member (preferred) -> First Minister/Prime… Read more »
What are the odds on Eluned Morgan joining Plaid, if not after the Senedd election, then after the next general election, when labour will most likely be trashed? I believe she has the best interests of Cymru at heart, but it will take a while for her to see the light.
The second referendum on full law making powers was in 2011 and the result was 63% in favour and 36% against. That in anyone’s book is a landslide. The problem the Labour Party has is they don’t like it in London and those in Wales have done nothing with that mandate, in fact surrendered it.
A few key points are being blurred together here. The 1997 Welsh devolution referendum was pre-legislative: it was held specifically to authorise Parliament to pass the Government of Wales Act 1998, and was therefore treated as binding in practice. Brexit, by contrast, was explicitly advisory and non-binding in law; Parliament remained sovereign and chose how to act on it. So comparing the two purely on turnout or majority misses a crucial constitutional difference. Narrow margins are also nothing unusual in UK constitutional change. More importantly, devolution has since been reaffirmed repeatedly, most clearly in 2011, when voters backed full law-making… Read more »
If you’re going to ignore more recent results why don’t you remember that 67% voted to stay in the common market in 1975?
Distinction, common market was not, is not the current EU. Which we were never asked about.
You obviously have not read the Treaty of Rome. The first paragraph of that document corrects your misunderstanding. You were informed, you just didn’t listen.
Destruction and self-harm is an Anglo-Saxon trait.
It,s utterly nauseating what this latest bunch of so called Politicians have allowed to happen to our Wales,we must never forgive or forget this,I cannot wait for their demise,come on Plaid Grens and whatever else it takes to get us what we need,along with Independence.
I agree with David Richards’ comment about a rose tinted assessment of the early years of devolution. There was a real opportunity to reform public services during that period (and the money to do it); but Welsh Labour flunked it, pandering to interest groups and their own preference for virtue signalling, never believing that the electorate would eject them. That was when the rot set in.
I think what’s missing here is the extent to which we have had a devolution of government, but not a corresponding devolution of politics in the minds of a significant number of people. Let’s face it, for all the many areas to criticise, Welsh Labours polling and local results where ticking along just fine until Labour came to power at a UK level and the popularity of that government then tanked. Same in Scotland, go to July 4 2024 and people were talking up Anas Sarwar as FM- they’re not anymore it’s fair to say. Though not in Gov in… Read more »
This piece reads not as an audit from outside the temple, but as a lament from deep within it. Des Clifford was not a detached observer of Welsh devolution, he was Carwyn Jones’s chief bag-carrier. The First Minister who elevated the deflection of blame onto Westminster into a governing art form. Clifford’s analysis predictably inherits this trait and thus never asks the central question. Namely, why did those of us embedded in the system for two decades so profoundly misjudge the scale and persistence of institutional failure? Performance did not suddenly collapse. It eroded slowly and visibly but was rationalised… Read more »
Spot on. The question now is whether an incoming Plaid government really has the courage (not the rhetoric) to correct the design failure. If they don’t they will become very unpopular very quickly by offering more of the same. I don’t know whether they have that courage as there are vested interests in the stakeholder state who will bitterly resist change.
Do I hop on the caravan here or play Devil’s Advocate… hmm. I’d like to say that Kier Starmer is a micromanager and doesn’t support Welsh Devolution and doesn’t want to engage with the Senedd but… the evidence is largely to the contrary. It is true that Wales is not getting what it was promised, it is true that Wales has been shafted repeatedly… often being asked to pick up the bar of soap. Yet, and yet… it’s also true that Wales has received a bigger funding settlement per capita than under the Tories. It’s also getting more of the… Read more »