Labour’s leader in Wales will insist that she “will not stay silent” if the Westminster leadership make “decisions that we think will harm Welsh communities”, days after Sir Keir Starmer lost swathes of seats to Reform UK in England.
In a speech marking one year to the 2026 Senedd election, First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan will say that she “will not hesitate to challenge from within”.
She will also say that “the future of Wales is at stake”, as the party looks to the challenge from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, one year out from the vote.
The intervention from Labour’s most senior figure in Wales comes after a bruising set of local election results in England for Sir Keir, which saw the party lose the only council it was defending to Reform, plus a parliamentary by-election.
The Prime Minister faced pressure to reverse his party’s fortunes over the weekend, with changes to the winter fuel allowance among the measures singled out by Labour figures as a problem. A Government source denied a report on Monday evening that Downing Street was rethinking a policy change on the matter.
Polling by Survation in April suggested that voters are split three ways when it comes to the Senedd elections, with Labour on 27%, and Reform and Plaid Cymru both on 24%.
Such numbers would mark a significant downturn in the Labour vote, after the party managed to secure 39.9% in the last elections in 2021.
In the same contest, Plaid Cymru got 20.3% of the vote, while Reform got 1.6%.
Speaking in Cardiff on Tuesday, Baroness Morgan is expected to say when it comes to working with the UK Government: “Where we disagree we’ll say it, where we see unfairness we’ll stand up to it.
“And when Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.”
She will also say: “I will not hesitate to challenge from within, even when it means shaking things up and disrupting the comfortable.”
In recent weeks, Baroness Morgan has called for Wales to receive a “significant share” of a Government clean steel fund in the wake of ministers intervening in Scunthorpe, telling Senedd members that “we do not want to see this funding going on supporting the Scunthorpe plant at the expense of the situation in Welsh steel”.
The Senedd elections next spring will be Baroness Morgan’s first as party leader, having assumed the role last summer.
She will say that she knew the “weight of responsibility” when she took on that role, and that “change was not only coming, it was needed”.
“A new voting system. A new era. A government that’s already delivered for 27 years. Now, with the rise of Reform and the risks of a divided left vote, the future of Wales is at stake,” she will add.
She is also expected to say that “our politics isn’t about putting people down, it’s about quiet determination. It’s about care, compassion, graft. It is about solidarity not spite”.
Reform won control of 10 local authorities in England last week, after they won more than 600 seats across the local elections.
Mr Farage has the Welsh and Scottish parliaments in his sights, as he said on Friday that “next year we will go for the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections, and I believe we can and we will win that next general election”.
Sir Keir Starmer faced push back in the wake of the English results, with policies such as changes to the winter fuel allowance and welfare reforms among those criticised by Labour figures.
He was also warned that right-wing parties would make gains at their expense if they do not offer the change that voters want.
