Labour should keep same basic message, Mark Drakeford says

Mark Drakeford: "Truthfully, what happened in Wales was what happens in a national election"

Welsh Labour's leader has said he does not believe the Corbyn project is discredited, despite the party's disastrous general election results.

Labour had its worst UK performance since 1935 and lost six seats in Wales.

Jeremy Corbyn has said he will stand down as the party's UK leader "early next year".

But Welsh leader Mark Drakeford told BBC Wales the party should stick with the "basic message" that Labour "stands for something better".

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In an interview marking a year since he won the Welsh Labour leadership, and became first minister of Wales, Mr Drakeford also said he believed the Welsh party should have more autonomy, and would look to Mr Corbyn's replacement to commit to that.

Asked by BBC Wales political editor Felicity Evans if the Corbyn project was now discredited, he said: "I don't believe so.

"I think it is very important that the next Labour leader continues to position the Labour Party as a party that says to people that you can have a different future, that there is hope for people, that things don't have to be as they are, that we can run this country in a way that makes it right for the majority of people, not just for a privileged few.

"Now, we will need to refine that message and retune it in five years' time, but that basic message [is] that the Labour Party stands for something different, stands for something better."

Mark Drakeford and Jeremy Corbyn in Barry during the general election campaign

Agreeing the voters' verdict had been pretty devastating, Mr Drakeford, a long-time supporter of Mr Corbyn, said he did not believe it was "because of the basic message".

"Maybe we didn't convey it convincingly enough, maybe there were things that they didn't feel confident that we could do," he said.

"But I want a Labour Party, and I want a Labour Party in Wales, that is out there saying to people 'we don't stand simply for managing the status quo a little bit less worse than the other lot'.

"We stand for a future for people in this country that is genuinely better than the present is today, in which we invest all our efforts and all our abilities in making this country one that offers the best chance for most people."

On the question of whether Welsh Labour should be more in charge more of its own affairs, Mr Drakeford said: "I think we will look to the new Labour leader to commit to a greater degree of autonomy for the Labour Party here in Wales, [so] that we have greater control over the way we run the party in Wales and greater control over some of the ways we contribute to the party nationally."

'National mood'

But the first minister denied that any lack of local control was in any way responsible for Labour's election performance in Wales.

"Truthfully, what happened in Wales was what happens in a national election," he said.

"The national mood and the national swing is what determines most of what happens in Wales.

"Nobody on the doorstep said to me 'I'd be voting for the Labour Party if only you had more autonomy'".

The first minister said a relief road would take six years to have an impact on M4 congestion

Mr Drakeford defended measures announced on Tuesday to tackle congestion on the M4 around Newport, such as reduced speed limits and better signage, insisting they would "make a contribution to making that part of the M4 flow more reliably".

He said the "bulk" of the recommendations on improving traffic flow on the motorway would come next year and rejected any need for a new relief road.

"The things we are doing immediately will happen immediately - the M4 relief road would have been six years before it made any difference to anything," he said.