The Labour first minister of Wales has urged voters not to treat the May elections as a referendum on Keir Starmer, calling on them to focus on the country’s future instead, with the party on course for a fight for third place.
Eluned Morgan said it was not the time to send a protest vote to the prime minister when two pro-independence parties – Plaid Cymru and the Greens – could end up in power and so much was at stake for the economy and public services.
In an interview with the Guardian, she said she would not retreat from fighting for Wales’s priorities – even if they were at odds with the UK government’s. But Labour faces an uphill struggle, with polls suggesting the Senedd race could end its decades of dominance in Wales.
With Starmer facing renewed leadership pressure from the potential return to Westminster of Andy Burnham, she said she was confident the prime minister would “get a grip” on running the country after a turbulent first 18 months in power.
But she declined to answer whether Starmer should lead the party into the next general election, saying it was in the gift of MPs. “There is no doubt, though, that if Labour performed badly in Wales in May, the heat will be put up on Keir,” she said.
“I do hope that people in this election will recognise that this is not a time to send a protest vote towards Keir Starmer. This is a time where people have to work out what is best for their communities and delivery of services.”
Reform UK and Plaid are on course to win more seats than Labour, reflecting pressure for change among the public after 26 years of Labour control.
Morgan, however, argued that 14 of those were under Tory austerity from which Wales was only just emerging. “We’re coming out of it now. We’ve got decent budgets that allow us to look to the future with hope,” she said.
“When you’ve been in power for 26 years, you gain a pretty good idea of how to govern. The UK government are still relatively new in that position, so I’m confident that they will get a better grip on setting out a clearer strategic vision for the country.”
Morgan welcomed Starmer’s tougher tone towards Donald Trump this week after the US president threatened to impose tariffs. “You have got to stand up to people when they threaten the international legal world order,” she said. “But also to recognise that you need to keep a cool head in these circumstances.”
But she would like Starmer to go further with the EU reset, saying it was “critical” for Wales to have the closest possible trading relationship as 59% of its exports were goods based, compared with 32% for the UK overall.
“Since we’ve left, proportionately, Wales is impacted more than England, because our economy is one based on goods rather than services. The irony is, of course, that it was those communities that voted for Brexit that have paid the price in terms of jobs because of that reduction in trade.”
On rejoining the EU, she said: “Now is not the time to rejoin, but I do think that that should not be off the table in the long term.
“I want to see the closest possible relationship with the EU. But I don’t think all of that is within our gift. This is about what the EU would be willing to offer us.”
Morgan said she was focusing on the “bread and butter” issues in Wales – such as growing the economy and improving public services.
Despite criticism of her government’s handling of NHS waiting lists, which remain higher than in England, she said they were down 90% since their peak, and that contrasting with England was like “comparing apples with pears” because the two countries counted differently.
Welsh voters should “wake up” to the prospect that two pro-independence parties could end up in power in Cardiff, suggesting it would be a “massive distraction” from the day-to-day business of running government.
Even though Plaid’s leader, Rhun ap Iorweth, has said a vote for his party would not be taken as an endorsement of independence, Morgan suggested it would be “too tempting” for him not to pursue it.
The implications for prosperity and public services in Wales were “dire”, she said, because of the £14bn funding gap. “You can’t have it both ways. The nationalists are trying to say, ‘Give us more money England’, while we head for the door.”
Turning her sights on Reform UK, which polls suggest is on course to take second place, she warned against the “politics of anger and division”, suggesting that Nigel Farage “doesn’t know the first thing” about Wales.
She suggested that Reform, in Wales as in the rest of the UK, was on course to be Conservatives 2.0 after so many defections. “I hope the people of Wales won’t be fooled by any suggestion that what you’ve got here is a fresh new party. What you’ve got here is recycled Tories who are on the road to oblivion.”
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