The UK could break apart unless it is rebuilt as a “solidarity union” where every citizen’s rights to public services and financial security are protected, the first minister of Wales, has warned. Mark Drakeford said the social and political bonds that tie the different parts of the UK together have come under “sustained assault” from 40 years of neoliberalism, a trend launched by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and then reinforced after Brexit by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. “In order to persuade people in all parts of the United Kingdom that their futures lie together within a restructured United Kingdom, we have to recreate a solidarity union,” the Welsh Labour leader said in an interview with the Guardian. That included rebuilding the safety net for those sick or out of work, with fundamental rights, he said, to environment, consumer and trade union protections, to human rights and to affordable public services.
“We have to rebuild the safety net, so you know that your membership of the United Kingdom entitles you to that collective security that it represents,” Drakeford said, implying that without it, Scotland and Northern Ireland could choose to leave the UK. “If you move from Scotland to Wales, you know that you will take those fundamental rights with you as part of your citizenship. Those have all been eroded progressively by Tory governments, particularly since 1979. “The long years of neoliberalism have been a sustained assault on the notion that citizenship means rights and the next Labour government needs to rebuild those rights, to do it explicitly and to say to people, this is what you get – that’s why it is worth belonging [to the UK].” Drakeford is expected to expand on that stance at a conference in Edinburgh on 1 June hosted by Gordon Brown, which will explore Labour’s proposals for significant reform of the UK. Organised by the former prime minister’s Our Scottish Future thinktank, speakers will include Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar. Drakeford is one of Labour’s most prominent advocates of wholesale reform of the UK, arguing that is the most credible response to the demands for independence in Scotland and for Northern Ireland’s reunification with Ireland. Wales, where Labour has a cooperation agreement with the nationalist party Plaid Cymru, has experienced a slow increase in support for independence, although it remains well below the near 50% support independence commands in Scotland. Demand for greater devolution to Wales is, however, entrenched. Brown’s proposals, which have been endorsed by Keir Starmer, the UK Labour leader, include scrapping the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected second chamber to represent the UK’s nations and regions. His commission proposes greater political and financial powers for Scotland, Wales and the English regions, and legally binding structures to guarantee the devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Stormont cannot have their powers overridden by Westminster. Drakeford said that since Brexit, Anglocentric Conservatives in London had shown a “fundamental disrespect” for the Welsh and Scottish parliaments by imposing internal trade rules and by failing to recognise Wales and Scotland had autonomy over health policy during the Covid crisis. Rishi Sunak has shown greater respect towards the UK’s devolved nations “even if it doesn’t translate into very practical effects”. In his speech on Thursday, Drakeford is likely to challenge the Brown commission’s position that Westminster would still retain sovereignty over the legislatures in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. Drakeford said the reality now is that “sovereignty exists in four different places”. He added: “What we should do is think of a United Kingdom in which sovereignty rests in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and then we choose voluntarily to pool that sovereignty back for certain important key shared purposes.” That outlook helped Drakeford build a close working relationship with Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, during their battles with the UK government over Brexit and during the Covid crisis. Drakeford is widely respected by senior Scottish National party politicians. Drakeford said the crisis in England over privatised water companies “siphoning off” profits while providing appalling services demonstrated the need for Labour to guarantee that essential services operated in the public interest. Until Thatcher’s privatisation spree, voters had a stake in public utilities and services. “I am not arguing at all for an old fashioned 1945 nationalisation programme [but] since the public invests huge amounts of money in bus services, train services and water services, it is entitled to a better return on that investment,” he said. “We have to find new ways that suit the 21st century to make sure that when decisions are made, the voice of the public is at the table to assert those interests – and that you get that by being members of the United Kingdom. “So my solidarity union is of building up a union based on those rights of citizenship.”