Labour: Drakeford makes case for party being bold in power
- Published
Mark Drakeford said Welsh Labour faced a "danger" of being simply content with power.
Welsh Labour's Mark Drakeford has made the case for being "bold" in power in his speech to Labour party conference.
Amid a debate about whether Sir Keir Starmer should offer the electorate more, the first minister of Wales said his own "recipe for renewal" was to be at the "cutting edge".
He said Labour faced a "danger" in Wales of being content with power.
Meanwhile he accused the Tories of a "toxic brand of personal attacks and culture wars".
He said the party was working to make Wales free of Tory MPs at the next general election.
The first minister did not reference that debate around Labour's plans ahead of the general election, but in the speech made the case for being radical in his own government.
He said the "greatest danger" for his party that has "earned the trust of its electorate over such a long period" is that "we become used to the privilege of power".
"We become content with being in charge, instead of determined to use that power for the progressive purposes, which shape our party."
"I am proud of the record of Labour in government in Wales," he said, adding "our recipe for renewal in Wales is to move always towards a cutting edge".
"It was a Labour prime minister told this conference, that we are at our best when we are boldest, and in Wales, we are that bold Labour government, bringing forward bold reforms."
He listed plans for Senedd reform, abolishing profit in the care of looked after children, reforming the school year, reforming buses and to make coal tips safe.
Mr Drakeford said a future UK Labour government would have "a genuine seriousness of purpose" and would be a "a government that will put the interests of our people first".
Analysis by Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales political editor
In an interview earlier, he had defended Sir Keir Starmer against accusations of timidity, saying circumstances are very different when you're not in power.
The first minister also imagined an era with 'no limits' as to what two Labour governments could achieve together.
But senior UK Labour figures won't commit to whether Wales should get consequential funding of around £2bn for the remaining stretch of HS2.
Never mind a bone - it is becoming a skeleton's worth of contention in Wales.
If Labour does win the next General Election, might the two billion pound question test those limits?
A future Sir Keir Starmer government would have a "genuine seriousness of purpose", Mark Drakeford said
During the speech, Mr Drakeford said: "Aneurin Bevan, as you know, said that he was 21 before he ever met a Tory."
He joked: "We are working hard in Wales to give our young people that same opportunity today."
"That is why as we approach the general election, our ambition is to make Wales once again, a country free of Tory MPs in 2024."
"Free of their toxic brands of personal attacks and culture wars, free of their deep hostility to devolution, their casualty cruelty and their malign neglect."
The Welsh Conservatives won 14 seats at the last election in 2024, up six from 2017.
At the 1997 election the party was wiped out at Westminster, losing all of its Welsh members of parliament at an election which was won by Tony Blair's Labour in a landslide.
Drakeford to quit in 2024
In an interview with BBC Wales Mr Drakeford reconfirmed his intention to quit as first minister during 2024.
Mr Drakeford said he had not made a decision about when exactly he will quit, but said: "It will be some time in the next calendar year."
On Sunday Labour's Shadow Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens would not be drawn on whether Wales would receive a share of the money spent on the London to Birmingham route.
Wales has not received extra funds resulting from the scheme as it was designated an England and Wales project, despite being entirely in England.
Mr Drakeford said Wales had been "cheated" out of money from the HS2 project, which Rishi Sunak announced last week would not be built beyond Birmingham.
He added: "I just completely understand that Labour's team aren't going to approach the run-up to an election by signing cheques randomly here there and everywhere".
"We absolutely believe that we were cheated out of money that should have come to Wales, under a proper interpretation of the Barnett formula."
Mr Drakeford said they would "go on making that case to our Labour colleagues, while recognising that they will have to in those early days, take a view of what can be done in the round."
The Barnett formula is the way that funding to Wales from the UK government is determined. Extra spending in England on areas of policy which in Wales are controlled from Cardiff usually trigger extra cash for the Welsh government.
On Monday Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Labour would hold an inquiry into the HS2 project.
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