Election 2021: Labour Wales carers' pay pledge at campaign launch

Labour said it would pay all carers the real living wage, currently £9.50 an hour

A Labour government after May's Senedd election would ensure all carers in Wales are paid the Real Living Wage, the party's Welsh leader has announced.

Mark Drakeford also pledged "a place in work, education, training or self-employment" for all young people.

He said this would be a "coronavirus election" and Labour wants to "complete that job" of dealing with the pandemic.

Other pledges include funding more police community support officers and creating a National Forest of Wales.

At the event, which was held online, the first minister unveiled six policies:

• Recovery after Covid: The biggest catch-up programme in Wales' NHS and schools, and a new medical school in north Wales

• Young Persons' Guarantee: Work, education or training offer for all under-25s

• A Fair Deal for Care: The Real Living Wage for care workers

• A Greener Country: Abolish more single-use plastics and create a National Forest for Wales

• Safer Communities: More police community support officers on the streets of Wales

• New Jobs for Wales: Create thousands of jobs in a low-carbon house building revolution

Speaking after the launch, Mr Drakeford said his government's record over the last "extraordinary" year "tells you that we are a government that has the competence, the credibility and the determination to lead Wales forward".

"We want to be the government that completes that job," he said.

Asked why his government hadn't already introduced the Real Living Wage for carers, Mr Drakeford said: "We have to find the funds to create a real living wage in a sector in which most people are not employed by the government but are employed by private firms.

"The lesson we take from the last twelve months is we've got recognise, and value and reward those people that we've relied upon."

The Real Living Wage is set by the Living Wage Foundation and for 2020-21 is £9.50 an hour outside London, which the organisation says is voluntarily paid by more than 7,000 UK businesses.

This compares to the UK government's official National Living Wage of £8.72 an hour outside London.

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Labour has been in government in Wales since devolution began in 1999, forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2000 and Plaid Cymru in 2007.

The party won 29 of the 60 seats in the 2016 Senedd election and governs with the support of Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams and independent member Lord Elis-Thomas.

Mark Drakeford has been leader of Welsh Labour and first minister of Wales since December 2018.

The party lost six Welsh seats to the Conservatives at the last UK general election in 2019.

The Senedd election is due to take place on 6 May.

The two big messages emerging from this campaign launch are around trust and ambition.

Welsh Labour wants to highlight the record of leader Mark Drakeford, because polling suggests the way he's handled the coronavirus crisis has been popular with many voters.

On the other hand they want to neutralise the opposition parties' narrative that after more than twenty years in power Welsh Labour is stale.

So they talk about experience and credibility on the one hand and use the slogan "Moving Wales Forward" on the other to suggest that the party has plenty of ideas for the next five years.