THE LEADER of the Welsh Conservatives has written to the Senedd’s Presiding Officer, Elin Jones, asking for a recall of the Senedd to appoint a new First Minister.
Andrew RT Davies sent the letter after it emerged that Eluned Morgan would likely succeed Vaughan Gething as First Minister unopposed.
MORGAN EMERGES
Last week, Vaughan Gething announced he would quit as Labour leader and First Minister.
On Saturday, Labour’s Welsh Executive convened and set out the timetable for electing the third Labour leader in the last seven months.
The timetable suggested an election period ending in September.
Over the weekend, Jeremy Miles, who Vaughan Gething beat by a tiny margin among Labour’s membership, said he would back Eluned Morgan for the top job.
Meanwhile, Huw Irranca-Davies emerged as a “running mate” for the Cabinet Secretary for Health.
The polls look disastrous for Labour in Wales with under two years until the next Senedd election. With Mr Miles out of the contest and Mr Irranca-Davies on board, it seems that the Senedd’s Labour group has decided to “unite” to try to halt the Party’s dramatic haemorrhage of public support.
However, rather than having Vaughan Gething hang around with a makeshift Cabinet until September, the Welsh Conservatives have called for a fully functioning government to be in place over the summer.
Describing the process as a “coronation,” Andrew RT Davies said: “Wales has faced political paralysis and Labour infighting for too long. We need certainty, and we need it fast.
“It is becoming clear that Labour in Wales will have a new leader very soon, and it seems that leader is almost certain to be Eluned Morgan.
“However, Baroness Morgan has presided over the longest waiting lists on record. And they’re still growing on her watch.
“Is this really the best that Labour can do?
“The Welsh Conservatives are calling for a recall of the Senedd to give Wales greater stability.
“Wales should not be without a functioning government for months over the summer.”
MORGAN’S “ABYSMAL RECORD”
Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “After weeks of infighting, Labour’s focus is squarely on party management rather than on a change of direction for Wales, making a mockery of Starmer’s country before party pledge.
“Labour leaders in Wales of the recent past and near future have one thing in common – an abysmal record of running the NHS, which has led to record high waiting lists.
“Being in government is now seen as more important to Labour than knowing what to do with the levers at their disposal.
“If Eluned Morgan becomes the leader of Labour in Wales and should she become First Minister, she will prioritise healing Labour’s wounds rather than renewing the government’s sense of purpose.
“The absence of a policy platform can only mean one thing – more of the same tired ideas and outdated thinking which has led to Wales languishing at the bottom of economic, health and educational league tables after 25 years of Labour in power.”
LABOUR VOTE IN TROUBLE
The fact that Labour in Wales thinks it needs a “unity” candidate suggests serious issues within the Party, both inside and outside the Senedd.
Labour’s vote fell at the General Election and is on a long-term downward spiral in Wales as the reality of devolved government clashes with Welsh voters’ expectations. A declining trajectory existed before Vaughan Gething became First Minister. His troubles accelerated the nosedive.
If the polls don’t improve dramatically, Labour faces losing its century-long grip on the levers of political power in Wales in 2026. That was almost unthinkable in 2016 and 2021, but it was then, and in the decade before, the seeds of decline were sown.
In its South-East Wales and Valleys fortresses, Labour faces a massive insurgent threat from Reform UK – provided Nigel Farage’s limited company can get its act together and organise over the next eighteen months.
When he became Labour leader in Wales, Vaughan Gething used up a considerable amount of goodwill among his colleagues by removing a raft of Special Advisors and replacing them with his own picks. In addition, Mr Gething manoeuvred his supporters into key posts in Labour’s internal hierarchy to cement his grip over the party machine in Wales. Again, that ate up a lot of any goodwill he might have expected after narrowly winning the bitterly contested election against Jeremy Miles.
Should Eluned Morgan continue with Mr Gething’s appointees and rigging of Labour in Wales’s internal structures, she will be Vaughan Gething Mark II in all but name.
The price of the Senedd group’s loyalty – loyalty, more or less – could be winding back Mr Gething’s troubled inheritance and delivering on the last Senedd manifesto instead of bowing down to the Westminster one.
LABOUR IN WALES OR LABOUR FOR WALES?
Since joining the Senedd, Baroness Morgan has not articulated a clear vision for Wales and its government. There has been no “clear red water and no distinctive message.
In the Senedd, she has not deviated one jot from the direction of the government’s travel. She has not stood up for the Mid & West region or Pembrokeshire over the demands for loyalty to whoever leads the Labour group in the Senedd.
When Carwyn Jones stood down, Eluned Morgan only got on the final ballot as a tokenistic gesture from the outgoing First Minister to ensure a woman would appear on voting papers. She did not stand to replace Mark Drakeford and vocally supported Vaughan Gething’s campaign.
Once Mr Gething ran into trouble, Eluned Morgan was swift to support her beleaguered colleague, ignoring her own role in concealing government communications from the UK Covid Inquiry. She played a prominent role in sandbagging Hannah Blythyn.
On wider issues, Eluned has parroted UK Labour policy lines even when they make her look ridiculous.
When the Cabinet Secretary for Health appeared in a Labour publicity photo for the General Election asking voters to back Labour to “Modernise the NHS”, it only drew attention to the fact that Labour has run the NHS in Wales for twenty-five years.
Eluned Morgan, Vaughan Gething, and Mark Drakeford have been Health Ministers for half that period between them. Certainly, “Modernising the NHS” was not the most astute platform choice. It didn’t help Labour’s share of the General Election vote in Wales, which fell sharply.
So many questions persist about what Eluned Morgan stands for. Loyalty to Labour and to the Labour brand in Wales has not produced any sign of original thought – or any other thought, for that matter.
If Labour’s apparatchiks think Welsh voters want more of the same, never mind the 2026 election, the next two years could be a rocky ride.
