Welsh Labour leader defends coalition with pro-independence party

Following last year’s election, the two parties thrashed out a three-year deal to "address issues which take the greatest political and policy effort to resolve".

Wales's First Minister Drakeford said that while they did not agree on everything, they focussed "on those areas where progressive parties can agree." 

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He told delegates at Labour's conference in Liverpool that "no party has a monopoly on good or progressive ideas.”

But it comes just weeks after rumours that Sir Keir Starmer was going to change the party’s constitution to permanently rule out a coalition with the SNP. 

According to reports last month, the leadership was set to bring forward proposals which would ban any arrangement with a nationalist party.

Many in Labour have long blamed the party’s defeat in 2015 on Tory claims that Ed Milliband would be in the pocket of Nicola Sturgeon. 

Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves at the Labour party conference in Liverpool (Image: PA)

The campaign was resurrected again in the 2019 election and Liz Truss has recently claimed that a Starmer administration would need to be "propped up" by the SNP. 

The party are keen to quash that speculation ahead of the next general election.

However, the plan to change the constitution was given short shrift by both Welsh Labour and Scottish activists, and it was seemingly dropped the next day. 

Starmer "doesn't need to read a rule book to know his values on this", a source told the BBC. However, they added that it would "be logical" for such a deal to be ruled out in the Labour manifesto.

In his speech to the conference, Drakeford said the party needed to be in power to make a difference. 

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He told delegates: “The central reason our party's existence, the reason why our members do all those things we ask of them, knocking those doors, delivering those leaflets, making those phone calls, is this, we exist to seek and to win political power.

“Not as an end in itself, but because only in that way can we change for the better the lives of those who rely on the Labour Party, rely on our party to fashion that better future for us all. 

“And conference, we can do better. 

“Whether that's through a Welsh Labour government, or a Labour mayor or a Labour council, we show every day the difference that Labour can make. And when we don't it, when we don't win power on their behalf, let's be clear, we let those people down.”

Drakeford said that while this year marked the 100th year that Labour had dominated Welsh politics, he said the party had, since devolution, never governed alone.

“While Labour has always formed the government in Wales, we've never governed alone.

“The faultline in Welsh politics runs right down the middle of the Senedd. On one side, a reactionary, out-of-touch, deeply unloved Conservative Party, on the other side, those parties committed to social and economic progress.

“Do the parties of the central left agree on everything? Of course not. But we focus on those areas where progressive parties can agree. 

“A politics which recognises the dominant position of Labour, but which also knows that no party has a monopoly on good or progressive ideas.”

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During his speech, Drakeford also spoke passionately about proportional representation. Changing the electoral system has been one of the key clashes between the leadership and the party faithful at this year’s conference. 

Starmer has said it is “not a priority” for him while focused on getting into power, but activists are keen to change the party’s policy. 

The Welsh FM told members: “First of all, the Senedd, with its unbroken Labour governments, has always been elected by proportional representation, a system put on the statute book, twice, by a Labour government at Westminster.

“And, in a special conference, earlier this summer, over three-quarters of the entire Welsh party voted to strengthen the proportionality of our voting system, to make sure that every Labour vote will count towards creating that next Welsh Labour government.”

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Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has also thrown his weight behind reform. 

“It’s a lot to do with the hoarding of political power in a very small place, SW1A 0AA,” he told an event held on the conference’s fringes by the Onward think tank.

“First past the post combined with the whips system in Parliament concentrates power in the executive to 50 to 100 pairs of hands. That in my view has given us the country we’ve got, that doesn’t work for everybody, everywhere.

“We need to talk about rewiring Britain to make power flow differently throughout Britain.

“It’s got to be a proportional system for the Commons.”

Mr Burnham said the whip system is “forcing people to adopt the London-centric policies of the civil service”, as he also called for an elected senate of nations and regions and “maximum” devolution.

On Sunday, Sir Keir told the Observer: “There are a lot of people in the Labour party who are pro-PR but it’s not a priority and we go into the next election under the same system that we’ve got, first past the post, and I’m not doing any deals going into the election or coming out of the election.”