Wales’ First Minister Eluned Morgan says Labour risks being taken for granted after being in power so long – but there’s still something about Nigel Farage that voters don’t like
Reform UK pose a serious threat to Labour but voters are clocking Nigel Farage ’s patronising view of Wales, the First Minister said.
Eluned Morgan admitted she was “seriously worried” by the surge in support for the right-wing party ahead of next year’s crunch Senedd elections.
She said Labour risks being taken for granted after being in power for so long but warned that things like free prescriptions, hospital car parking, and free bus travel for over 65s weren’t guaranteed.
She said: “There’s lots of things like that that we have that people just assume are going to continue.
“We’re trying – in the light of the fact we have got elections next year – to remind people that these things could be lost.
“These are political choices.”
On Reform, she said: “I’m seriously worried about the threat that they pose and it’s not just about their ability to run a country.
“We’ve been here before in Wales, so Nigel Farage’s party were elected to the Senedd before, they had seven members elected as Ukip.
“By the end of the parliament, six of them had left the party to join three different parties.
“We’ve seen them close up before, and it’s not pretty. When the rubber hits the road, when it comes to Reform, it all falls apart.”
She said Reform’s plans for Elon Musk-style efficiency savings in local councils would mean cutting public sector jobs.
And she accused the party of wanting to introduce health insurance after Mr Farage repeatedly suggested he wanted to re-examine the NHS funding model.
She said: “People need to understand what’s at stake if they vote for Reform.”
Reform recently said it was committed to keeping the NHS free at the point of delivery and free prescriptions.
Mr Farage doesn’t know the first thing about Wales, she said, pointing to his recent call to reopen domestic coal mines.
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She said: “I would be very surprised if you could find anyone who worked in the coal mines in the past who wanted their grandchildren to go down the pits.
“That is somebody who doesn’t understand and who hasn’t watched somebody struggling to breathe as a result of emphysema, who hasn’t had to live next door to an open cast coal area where they are breathing in particles.
“Then to suggest he’s going to come in and reopen the blast furnace is absolutely illiterate in terms of understanding how the steel sector works – and that’s starting to be clocked by people in Wales.
“To come in and patronise us with this very old fashioned view of Wales is something that I hope people will start to realise is not appropriate for our country.”