We must listen after turmoil, says Labour minister

The man poised to be deputy head of the Welsh government has said it must focus on what matters to people after the "turmoil" that led to First Minister Vaughan Gething’s resignation.

Huw Irranca-Davies said Welsh Labour needed to speak to voters directly "and take a bit of flak as well".

The climate change and rural affairs secretary stood on a "joint unity ticket" with Eluned Morgan, who will be confirmed as new first minister on 6 August.

Plaid Cymru would not say if it will help Labour pass its budget, but warned that the ruling party must stop "rowing back on ambition", and Conservatives said "the focus must shift now to the people's priorities".

The Ogmore Member of the Senedd (MS) is due to become deputy to Ms Morgan, who was elected unopposed as Welsh Labour's first female leader last week.

She has apologised to the people of Wales after the upheaval which saw Mr Gething announce he was quitting after just four months in charge.

Mr Gething was beset by controversies from the start, including accepting £200,000 for his leadership campaign from a man twice convicted of environmental offences, and dismissing a minister he accused of leaking information.

Mr Irranca-Davies told BBC Wales' Sunday Supplement: "There’s been a lot of turmoil in the (Labour) group, there’s been a lot of inward looking to try to resolve issues.

"And really what the public want... is for us to focus on the things that matter to them."

He said Ms Morgan was right to apologise, and the public "switch off" from a party "constantly dealing with its own issues".

"The public say, 'Well, what’s going on?' The person in the street will say, 'Will you please get on with doing the day job?' "

With 30 of the 60 Senedd seats, Labour is one short of an absolute majority in the Senedd.

But Mr Irranca-Davies predicted Labour would be able to get its budget through the Senedd, even though it no longer has a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru.

He said Labour would not be trying to co-operate with Conservatives, but would explore with Plaid and the Senedd's only Liberal Democrat "whether there is a programme for government and a budget that will work".

He argued that the other parties would see "as responsible parliamentarians that there is a need to deliver a budget for Wales".

Asked by presenter Vaughan Roderick whether Ms Morgan was best equipped to be first minister after her record as health secretary, Mr Irranca-Davies said she had promised "a reset" and "to go out and speak to people directly, and take a bit of flak as well".

The Welsh government would, he said, be able to convice people, but it had to "earn the right".

He said a junior doctors’ strike had been avoided in Wales after good engagement with them, and long-term waiting times were coming down faster than in England.

"But we know that we’ve got so much further to go. And I think there’s a bit of honesty here with people in Wales as well.

"We are not immune from the pressures on the health service, this is UK-wide. But we have more of a distance to travel in Wales.

"It’s not only listening but it’s acting on those priorities."

He would not say whether a Welsh government job would go to Jeremy Miles, the former economy minister who was narrowly beaten by Mr Gething in the earlier leadership contest, and then decided not to stand again after his resignation.

Mr Irranca-Davies said Ms Morgan would "draw on all the talents" of Labour MSs.

"Everybody has been feeling bruised (but) there’s been a strong collegiate spirit now to say let’s get back together again, focus on what’s important for the people of Wales, and deliver, and that includes every person."

Delyth Jewell, deputy leader of the Senedd Plaid group, said it was not possible to say yet if her party would vote for Labour’s budget, as there were uncertainties about the new government and its priorities.

She accused Welsh Labour of "rowing back on ambition" and said "no less than a break with that timidity will do – not just with this government but for the good of Wales".

"I don’t think this will be forgotten because this latest calamity, the chaos we’ve had over the last few months, that’s come at the end of 25 years of failing to do enough for the people of Wales," she said.

"Yes, there are things the Labour Party has achieved, and they have been governments where Plaid has worked in concert with them… but there has not been enough ambition. And there always seems to be a cap on what they are willing to do."

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said: “After months of instability and Labour infighting, the focus must shift now to the people's priorities.

“The incoming deputy first minister has been clear with his comments, he has admitted that Labour have been looking inward instead of delivering for the people of Wales.

“The Welsh Conservatives want to see Labour's costly vanity projects, like the creation of 36 more politicians, scrapped to fund the priorities of people the length and breadth of Wales, like our struggling schools and hospitals.”