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Eluned Morgan will warn voters not to “gamble” on Reform’s “divisive noise” or Plaid’s “fantasy politics”
Labour offers “experience and stability” over the “division and fantasy” of their political opponents, Wales’ first minister is set to tell the party’s Autumn conference.
“Wales will fall into chaos if either Plaid or Reform win [the Senedd election] in May,” she will say in her conference speech in Liverpool on Sunday.
Labour Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens, will tell delegates that Plaid’s plan for Welsh independence would cost “every working age adult over £11,000 each year in tax rises and austerity cuts”.
In response, Plaid Cymru said Labour policies, including keeping the two-child benefit cap, the national insurance hike and winter fuel payment cuts were costing working families.
The first minister will warn voters not to “gamble” on Reform’s “divisive noise” or Plaid’s “fantasy politics” claiming they would “destroy” everything Labour has built since devolution.
“Reform’s plan? Gut the NHS. Axe free prescriptions. Flog off and frack everything that moves.”
Nigel Farage’s previous party, UKIP, was a “shambles” in the the Senedd, she will say, with one former member admitting Russia-linked bribery charges.
“Wales doesn’t need fantasy politics. It needs a practical and exciting vision for the future of our nation which we will set out in our next manifesto.
“What we need is experience and stability in an age of instability.”
In her speech, Stevens will accuse Plaid Cymru of “fantasy economics” claiming the party’s independence plan would see “billions of pounds of tax rises and biting austerity forced on working people across Wales”.
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She will point to new UK government analysis suggesting independence would “require each working age adult in Wales to pay over £11,000 extra every year in tax to just retain the current level of public services”.
This analysis has not been shared in full with the BBC, and so the claims have not yet been independently verified.
However, the BBC understands the calculations assume an independent Welsh government would continue to spend the same amount on the same areas the UK government currently spends in Wales on areas that it controls.
“If Plaid want to be taken seriously, they need to confirm whether they’re going to tax Welsh families into poverty or cut public services to the bone,” Stevens will say.
“Labour has ended austerity in Wales. Don’t let Plaid impose it on Wales again.”
By contrast, she will says the UK government will invest more than £200m to revitalise high streets and regenerate communities in Wales.
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “Jo Stevens has opted to use her conference platform to talk Wales down at a time where more and more Labour voters are coming over to Plaid Cymru with our positive vision for our nation and belief in our potential”.
“As Labour scramble for relevance, the people of Wales know that what is actually hitting them hard in the pocket is happening on Labour’s watch.”
Analysis from BBC Wales political editor Gareth Lewis
Eluned Morgan’s and Jo Stevens’ messages appear to be stick with us and don’t risk it next May.
Recent polls suggest that voters want to boot Labour out in favour of Plaid Cymru or Reform.
From what we’ve seen of Morgan’s speech so far it is much less about Labour’s record and what it hopes to deliver and much more on the danger of turning elsewhere: an acknowledgement perhaps that record and delivery aren’t impressing voters much at the moment.
Ditto Stevens, who goes further with her claims about potential tax rises in an independent Wales, which Plaid are sure to take issue with.
Some of this echoes what Keir Starmer has been saying at UK level in recent days, describing Reform as an ‘enemy’.
But Labour in Wales is fighting on two fronts and also against the irony of the one-word slogan that propelled the party to a landslide win at last year’s General Election: change.
