Labour first minister says party's MPs not standing up for Wales

Eluned Morgan has been first minister of Wales since last summer

The first minister has accused Welsh Labour MPs in Westminster of not standing up for Wales, BBC Wales has learned.

Eluned Morgan's comments were made during a meeting with MPs earlier this week.

There has been growing unease amongst Welsh Labour Senedd politicians about a number of decisions made by the UK government including cuts to welfare and tax increases.

Morgan did not deny the comments, telling BBC Wales: "There will be times when we perhaps see things in a different light. That's devolution."

Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives said Labour should be dealing with the needs of people in Wales, rather than rowing with each other.

BBC Wales understands that the virtual meeting took place on Monday night.

Sources said the first minister told the Welsh Labour members of Parliament they were not doing enough to stand up for the country.

The comments were not well received, the sources said.

In an interview on Thursday, Morgan said: "I have regular meetings with Welsh MPs. Obviously, we work together really closely. We'll continue to do so.

"What happens in those meetings obviously will remain private, but we have a good relationship and we'll continue to work together."

She said that the nature of devolution meant "there will be times when we perhaps see things in a different light".

"That's ok. Everyone needs to relax."

The Labour row comes with just over a year to go until the 2026 Senedd election and as the first minister prepares to give a speech next week in which she will clarify her position on UK government welfare reforms.

It is not certain how far she will go, or what else the speech will cover.

Morgan has "reserved" her position on the cuts to welfare so far, and has not overtly criticised the plans.

She has made a previous veiled criticism of Labour's Welsh secretary at Westminster, Jo Stevens, for suggesting that she welcomed the reforms.

Given that backdrop, opposition parties are sceptical whether Morgan can successfully reposition herself and Welsh Labour - if she were so minded.

They suggest Labour in Wales is in a panic and that any move would be too little too late.

Despite calling it a "partnership in power" since Labour won the general election last year, the relationship between UK Labour and Welsh Labour politicians has not always been easy.

Welfare reforms, the cuts to winter fuel payments and increases to employers' National Insurance contributions (NICs) - brought in at Westminster - have caused concern in Cardiff Bay.

Wales has some of the highest rates of benefits claims in the whole of the UK.

The UK government has not produced a Wales-specific impact assessment, despite the Welsh government asking for one.

The Bevan Foundation estimates that 275,000 people in Wales could be impacted by changes to personal independence payments (PIP) and 110,000 by changes to universal credit.

The only Welsh Labour MPs to speak out publicly against the welfare plans are Steve Witherden, who represents Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, and Wrexham MP Andrew Ranger.

Several Labour MSs have criticised the plans and a Labour minister - Jane Hutt - said she had "strongly" raised concerns over the two-child limit for certain benefits, which the UK government has decided not to scrap.

The Welsh Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford has also raised concerns that Wales will be left £65m short because of the way compensation is calculated for public sector bodies' NICs.

The first minister has been pushing for Wales - as yet unsuccessfully - to get more rail infrastructure spending, including consequential funding for HS2 high speed rail being built in England.

Welsh Labour also wants control of the Crown Estate, which is responsible for the seabed around Wales, and is vital for the development of floating offshore wind.

It has already been devolved to Scotland.

The UK government has acknowledged that Wales has been underfunded on rail and says it would like to make improvements along the south Wales mainline and in north east Wales, but nothing has been confirmed.

There are no plans to devolve the Crown Estate.

Welsh politicians have complained for years about the lack of money for Wales from the High Speed Rail 2 project

Just this week the first minister has come under pressure from opposition parties over the UK government's plans for the steel industry, with accusations that the steelworks in Port Talbot had been treated differently to the plant at Scunthorpe.

Morgan published a letter to the UK government's business secretary on Wednesday in which she calls for a "significant ringfence" of a £2.5bn UK government steel fund to be earmarked for Wales.

There are concerns that the bulk of the money could be earmarked for Scunthorpe.

Jo Stevens has previously spoken of resetting the relationship between the two governments to "one of trust, co-operation and mutual respect".

Speaking in the recent St David's Day debate in the Commons, she said the UK government had already overseen £6bn of investment committed to Wales, including £25m as part of a plan to make coal tips safe.

There are also thought to be tensions between Labour in Wales and Labour in Westminster over where the main threat to the party lies at next year's Senedd election.

Broadly speaking MPs think that the biggest challenge comes from Reform. They believe their colleagues in the Senedd are too focused on Plaid Cymru.

Recent polling suggests the three parties are pretty much neck and neck.

Plaid Cymru Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts, said: "Under Eluned Morgan, Labour in Wales is once again riven by infighting, just as it was under Vaughan Gething.

"People across Wales - from steelworkers abandoned in Port Talbot to the elderly and disabled unfairly scapegoated - deserve leaders who fight for them, not each other."

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar said: "We need a new government in Wales that is focused on delivering for the people of Wales, not one that is distracted by internal rows that will do nothing to fix our NHS, improve school standards, and drive up wages."