Eluned Morgan says she’s facing the pressure after year as first minister

First Minister Eluned Morgan says she is feeling the pressure as she gears up her party for the next Senedd election following her first year in the job.

Over the past few months polls have suggested Labour may lose its lead in a Welsh parliamentary election for the first time since the 1920s.

Marking a year in charge, the Welsh Labour leader said she had a “historic responsibility” and knew when she took the job her party would be in for a “tough time”.

Meanwhile she said the UK government was “probably” not listening to her at the time she made a landmark speech criticising Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

Opposition parties have accused Morgan of “drift,” “dithering” and “failure” in her first year on the job, claiming the “same old problems remain”.

Morgan took over her party after a tumultuous period, following the ousting of Vaughan Gething by senior figures in the Welsh government.

Gething’s short stint as first minister was dominated by a donation of £200,000 from a man previously convicted of illegally dumping waste to his preceding leadership campaign.

Morgan was installed without a contest after other potential candidates ruled themselves out.

Since then the first minister has sought to focus on a small list of priorities – particularly on reducing long NHS waits.

Speaking to the BBC Wales podcast Walescast on Wednesday, Morgan said the longest waits were “definitely heading in the right direction”.

When it was pointed out to her that two-year waits had risen recently, she said there was a “particular problem” in the north Wales health board, Betsi Cadwaladr.

She said: “I am pulling my hair out.

“But, look, we’re all over them.”

Morgan said the health board were getting some treatments “out into the independent sector, because you know what you’re getting there”, as well as opening a new orthopaedic hub.

Figures released in July said those waiting more than two years went up by 6.5% on the previous month, to just under 10,300.

Morgan said Labour had to take the challenge facing the party seriously.

“I think we’ve got to remind people of what’s at stake, things that they see every day in their lives, free prescriptions, free bus passes, free school meals.

“Every time you win an election it gets more difficult for the time after, and of course, there’s a historic responsibility, and there’s a responsibility as the first woman leader as well.

“So yeah, of course, I’m feeling the pressure.”

A significant moment in her term in office came in May, when Morgan delivered a speech in Cardiff Bay’s Norwegian Church that was scathing of UK government policy.

Dubbed by Morgan as the Red Welsh Way, the first minister promised to “call out” Labour in Westminster if ministers got “it wrong for Wales”.

The first minister said the Welsh government had received more cash for coal tips and rail from the UK government.

“So is it enough? No, I want more. I’ll always want more, and I’m not going to apologise for that.”

Morgan said she thought the UK government had “started sitting up and paying a bit more attention to us since I made the Red Welsh Way speech”.

Asked if she made the speech because she was not being listened to at the time, Morgan said: “I think that that was probably the case at that time, but that is no longer the case. Since then the engagement has been transformed.”

Morgan said she speaks to Sir Keir “at least once a month… probably more than any other first ministers had in the past”.

The first minister took over after months of bickering within her party.

Speaking to BBC Radio Cymru podcast Gwleidydda with Vaughan Roderick, she said: “I think it’s important that we concentrate on what’s important to the people of Wales.”

Morgan said she felt “hesitant” when she took the reins but things had “calmed down a lot” since then.

“I was confident I could fix that and quite quickly that’s what happened,” she said.

Morgan said Labour must concentrate on voters’ priorities rather than “internal political nonsense”.

Responding to the suggestion people within Welsh Labour were briefing against one another, she said she “hated” that kind of politics.

“I think we should rise above that, and I don’t think there’s a political split in the party,” she added.

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, Darren Millar, said: “One year on and nothing has changed.

“Whether it’s 20mph speed limits slowing Wales down, or Labour’s plans to waste £120m on more politicians in the Senedd, the same old problems remain.”

Plaid Cymru Senedd member Heledd Fychan said: “Eluned Morgan’s first year as first minister is encapsulated by a record of failure: from missing her own target to eliminate two-year NHS treatment waits, to faltering educational outcomes and rising levels of poverty in our communities.”

Reform, which is hoping to win its first Senedd seats next May, said: “From day one, she promised leadership and delivery. What we got was drift, dithering, and distraction.

“Public services are buckling, the economy is stagnant, and the people of Wales are being let down by a first minister more interested in headline-chasing than hard graft.”

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds said it was “fantastic” Wales had a female first minister and leading a party “was harder when you’re a woman”.

“But the thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is that she doesn’t stand up to Keir Starmer,” she said.

“She promised to do that. She promised to make sure Wales’ voice was strong and I don’t see that.”