Mark Drakeford: Tory 'arrogance' could damage UK

Mark Drakeford said that Labour was a "dedicated devolutionist party"

The Conservatives' "arrogance" could lead to the "unravelling" of the UK, according to Wales' first minister.

Mark Drakeford said the party's "grace and favour" attitude to devolution could put the UK's future in danger.

He said that Labour was a "dedicated devolutionist party".

"In the end it is the so-called unionists who pose the greatest threat to the union of the United Kingdom," he said, speaking at the Scottish Labour Party conference in Dundee.

"It is their arrogance and their taken-for-granted assumptions that they have a right to be in charge of the rest of us that risks the unravelling of the United Kingdom to which this party is genuinely committed."

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Speaking on devolution, he said: "While Labour in Wales is committed to devolution, we are at the same time a party which firmly believes Wales' future is best secured through a successful United Kingdom."

Mr Drakeford continued: "It is this combination of powerful devolution on the one hand and the commitment to the wider United Kingdom on the other that gives the Labour Party our most distinctive offer.

"And it is in such powerful contrast to what others put in front of the people of Scotland and Wales. Despite the fact that devolution has been with us for 20 years, scratch the surface of the Conservative Party and its instinctive hostility to Wales and Scotland quickly emerges.

"Theirs is a grace-and-favour version of devolution, in which London always remain supreme, in which powers are given, not won in a referendum, and that can equally and easily be taken away.

"It is the Labour Party which understands that the United Kingdom is a voluntary association, a voluntary union for four nations."

Mr Drakeford spoke the day after Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has issued a plea for unity in the party, as he made a speech to the Scottish conference.

The build-up to the conference had seen continuing disagreements within the party about its approach to Brexit and how to tackle anti-Semitism.