When Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called for Keir Starmer to resign on 9 February, speculation grew that his Welsh counterpart, Eluned Morgan, might soon follow him. She had previously criticised the Prime Minister, attempting to carve out a distinct “Red Welsh Way” in contrast to the party leadership in Westminster. But rather than join the calls for him to go, Morgan sent him a text.
“I texted Keir to let him know he had my support before he went to the PLP meeting,” she told the New Statesman on 17 February. “I’m focused on the needs of Wales, and I think that what Wales needs is stability and investment, and I think you’re more likely to get that if you’ve got a stable government.” She added: “People keep on trying to drag me into the goings-on in Westminster. I’ve got enough to do here without being a 24-hour commentator on what’s happening in London.”
The day after our interview Morgan appeared with the Prime Minister at the Transport for Wales (TFW) depot in Taff’s Well. Together they unveiled a funding plan for the future of Welsh rail, a scheme Morgan has championed since taking office in August 2024. It promises seven new stations, 12,000 jobs and an estaimated £6.3bn in wider economic benefits for Wales. Starmer called the plans “putting Wales on the front foot”. Welsh Labour’s opponents told the BBC the party was “reheating” old announcements ahead of a critical Senedd election on 7 May.
The Welsh Labour leader was elated with the extra funding for TFW. “We’ve been fighting the injustice of rail funding for a long time in Wales. Under the Tories we were hugely underfunded. Whilst HS2 was getting billions, we weren’t getting anything like our fair share.”
The First Minister made it clear when she took the job that she would not “stay silent” if she thought the government was going to do something that was detrimental to Wales. Last year, Morgan clashed with the government over the proposed cuts to the welfare bill. These reforms would have disproportionately hit Wales. Research by Policy in Practice found that 6 per cent of the Welsh population would have had their incomes cut by up to 60 per cent as a direct result of the originally tabled changes.
She criticised the proposals at the time. “We all recognise that we want to see welfare reform,” she said, “but I think we’d have preferred if they’d have taken a leaf out of our book in Wales.” In May 2025, while Starmer’s administration faced a rebellion over those welfare cuts in Westminster, Morgan declared her Welsh Labour government would be “tacking to the left”, a characterisation she repeated, describing her administration as “unapologetically Welsh and further to the left” than Starmer’s operation.
Morgan has been explicit about her demands of the Prime Minister. Eighteen months later, and the Labour government in Westminster appears to be listening. Earlier this year, she said Starmer would only be welcome to join her May Senedd election campaign in Wales if he brought “goodies”. When asked whether he would be welcome on the campaign trail in a few months, Morgan said: “I did make it clear to him, if you’re coming you’ve got to bring something with you, and to be fair this is something big.”
Morgan has been arguing for more rail funding for Wales since she became leader, shortly after Labour won the general election in 2024. “This was my number one priority,” Morgan said, “and I am more than delighted that they are now delivering this. Of course I’ll keep pushing for more, but this was the big one. And fair play to them.”
Morgan was born in Cardiff in 1967. Her father was Bob Morgan, a Labour councillor and a vicar in the church of Wales. The family lived in Ely, a district to the north of the city, where Morgan attended a Welsh-speaking school, where rocks were once thrown at her and her classmates for their language. Morgan is petite and feisty, with a short brown bob and a quizzical brow. When we met she was rushing between interviews and meetings. The Senedd, like the UK parliament, was on recess; but the First Minister’s schedule clearly wasn’t any less crowded.
“I was brought up in one of the biggest council housing estates in Europe,” Morgan said, “my father was the vicar on the estate. We had all the issues of the community literally coming into our house.” Morgan’s Labour links are rooted in her family; but it’s this sense of helping people in need which drove her closer to the party. “For me, Labour is the party that provides opportunities that make sure that everybody can make the most of themselves”, she said.
There is also a deeply historic political tie between Labour and Wales. The party’s identity was forged there, in and around the coal mines which littered the south Wales valleys (all that now remains are dangerous coal tips, many of which have yet to be cleared). Keir Hardie, one of the co-founders of the Independent Labour Party, won his first parliamentary seat as a Labour candidate in Merthyr Tydfil and Ramsay MacDonald was the MP for Aberavon when he walked onto Downing Street to become Labour’s first PM.
Aneurin Bevan, whom Ben Pimlott described as “one of the most forceful leaders of the Labour left” and a “not-quite dormant volcano”, was the health secretary who oversaw the creation of the NHS. Bevan, who worked in a south Wales mine as a teenager, was a towering figure in post-war Labour politics. Labour has governed in the Senedd since its establishment in 1999. Carwyn Jones, Rhodri Morgan and Mark Drakeford have all served as Welsh Labour first ministers.
Morgan believes Welsh Labour politicians take a distinct approach, one that sets them apart from their English counterparts. “They had a sense of fairness,” she said of Aneurin Bevan and Neil Kinnock, who led the Labour Party between 1983 and 1992. That tradition has informed her “Red Welsh Way”, which she launched in May 2025.
This strategy has its roots in Mark Drakeford and Rhodri Morgan’s strategy of Clear Red Water, meaning the Welsh Labour administration would distance itself from the UK Labour administration. Morgan explained it means Welsh Labour doing things that are appropriate for Wales, even if they might not be appropriate for other parts of the UK.
She described the philosophy at its heart as being “further to the left” than UK Labour, but would not be drawn into discussing whether that meant her Welsh government had more in common with the party’s soft left in London. This has caused tension. She has been critical of Starmer, coming close to blaming his unpopularity for her party’s poor polling. Speaking to the Senedd Sources podcast earlier this year, Morgan pointed out that Starmer is “not on the ballot paper” and criticised “stupid” Westminster decisions.
Even so, as First Minister of Wales, Morgan remains reliant on support and investment from the UK Labour government – support she argues will be less forthcoming if Welsh voters opt to put another party in power on 7 May. She faces a delicate balancing act: doing what she believes is right for Wales, maintaining her own political integrity, and preserving strong relations with Labour in Westminster.
As May approaches, Welsh Labour is staring down the barrel of an election that could decimate its base. A January poll by YouGov placed the party on 10 per cent, behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK. Twenty-five years of dominance in the Senedd could be brought to an abrupt end. Morgan insisted that she and Welsh Labour are not complacent: “Look, we recognise there’s a challenge on our hands,” she said. “There’s a long way to go, and we recognise that people are frustrated.”
But there was a hint of frustration detectable in the rest of Morgan’s answer. “We get free prescriptions in Wales, people don’t realise that’s not offered in England.” She added: “All of these things – people think that’s just how it is. But all of those are political choices we have made to help and support people through a cost-of-living crisis.”
But will alerting voters of this be enough to pull Welsh Labour back from the brink? As the journalist Will Hayward pointed out in a recent Substack: “Wales has the longest waiting lists, the worst educational outcomes and the lowest productivity.” Voters are feeling the pinch, and are wondering whether more radical change is needed. Last year’s Caerphilly by-election saw Plaid Cymru overturn a century of Labour dominance in the constituency. For the past year, Reform and Plaid Cymru have been neck-and-neck in the polls.
“I understand that people are frustrated. I understand that people want things fixed quicker,” Morgan said, “but I don’t think Reform will offer answers. What they offer is anger.” She described handing over Wales to Nigel Farage’s renegade party – which has never been in government in the Senedd – as “one hell of a risk”.
Of Plaid Cymru, Morgan repeated a critique she has made many times in recent months: “They’re ultimately interested in separating from the rest of the UK and I think that is extremely dangerous for our country.” In an interview with the New Statesman earlier this year, Rhun ap Iorwerth said that while his party remains pro-independence, it would not be his top priority if he were elected first minister.
There are ten weeks to go before Welsh voters head to the polls in a potentially historic Senedd election. May is already being treated in Westminster as a potential inflection point for Keir Starmer’s leadership.
So far, his Welsh counterpart has stood by him. But given her past willingness to articulate a distinct “Red Welsh Way” – and to criticise the party leadership when Eluned Morgan feels Welsh interests demand it – the question inevitably hangs in the air: if her administration were to suffer a brutal defeat in two months’ time, would that loyalty endure?
[Further reading: Britain’s fraying constitution]
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