Public services are the Welsh people’s priority rather than more devolution, the new first minister has said, promising to “reinvent” Labour after taking office in the Senedd.
Eluned Morgan, the former health minister, was sworn in on Tuesday, becoming the third leader of Welsh Labour this year. She has taken over after her predecessor, Vaughan Gething, lasted less than 140 days in office before being forced to resign over a row about donations and a sacked minister he wrongly accused of leaking messages. Morgan, who is the first female Welsh leader and was the only candidate to replace Gething, said she was acutely aware that she had not been through a leadership campaign, and needed to set out her stall to the nation and understand how the government could “reset”. “We’ve got to refresh in office,” she said. “And I think having a new female first minister means that things will look different, they’ll sound different, and they will be different, and that gives us an opportunity to take that refresh seriously.” She added: “I do think we do have to reinvent ourselves in office and take the opportunity to really focus in on things that matter to people.”
Morgan said she would undertake a tour over the rest of the summer to understand the key priorities for people in Wales. “My guess is that they will want public services to be their priorities, rather than, at this particular point, pressing for further devolution, although that is something that I know is important for many people in Wales, and has indeed been important to me,” she said.
Labour has promised to look again at devolving further powers to Wales but stopped short of any big promises on policing or justice powers or the rail network, three of the key asks. A report on devolution by the former prime minister Gordon Brown in 2022 suggested shifting powers over youth justice and probation, but not handing over powers for policing, prisons and adult courts. Morgan said she was hopeful more would be forthcoming. “I’m not expecting, certainly not, policing to happen overnight in terms of devolution. But I think probably we could make some inroads in relation to youth justice and probation, and that would be a significant step forward,” she said. No violent disorder has yet taken place in Wales connected to the gatherings of the far right in towns across England and in Northern Ireland. Morgan said she was “not complacent” about this, and said one of her first meetings as the new first minister would be to convene police chiefs and community leaders on the strategy for preventing any similar violence. “We’re not taking anything for granted, but we’re working hard to prevent any potential disorder in Wales,” she said. A new campaign will start on Monday called Hate Hurts Wales. “I think that’s going to be instrumental in terms of tackling hate crime, doing that monitoring of community tensions and responding if those emerging tensions break out,” she said. “We are very aware, and I hope that it came across very clearly in my speech today, that actually what we need is a situation where everybody feels valued and feels that they can make a contribution to our communities.” In her speech in the Senedd, Morgan said the last few weeks “have been difficult and we have been through some turmoil. But we know that we are at our best when we work in unity as a party and as a nation.” The Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said his party would “wish her well today” but there was a question over Morgan’s legitimacy as first minister having faced no election. “We also remind her and her government that in similar circumstances elsewhere the Labour hierarchy argued that multiple changes in leadership in Westminster and in Scotland undermines the democratic legitimacy of government and demanded fresh elections,” he said. “It is for Labour to explain why different rules should apply in Wales.” The Labour leader and prime minister, Keir Starmer, welcomed Morgan’s confirmation as first minister, saying she had “made history” as the first woman to hold the office. “In this new chapter, we will deliver growth in all parts of our nations and deliver the high-quality public services that people deserve,” he said.