Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 2 July 2024.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:57, 2 July 2024

Yet again, we don't have the election result yet, but Rhun ap Iorwerth is already disappointed about a Government that has not had a single day in office. We need to win the election first. I can tell him we are absolutely not complacent about the result. That is why we have been going out and working with, listening to and talking to the people of Wales for months and months. It's why this campaign matters so much to us. Because I do remember the last Labour Government. At the start of that, I was a genuinely young man in 1997. I remember how bad the country was then and the loss of hope that had taken place. I remember the fact that that Government saw hundreds of thousands of children lifted out of poverty. I have been part of a Government here in the last 11 years that has done our very best to try to take the heat out of what the Tories have done to us. And yet we know there are more children living in poverty now, because of direct choices made in Downing Street. It shows that the choices at these elections do matter.

I'm proud that Welsh Labour candidates are standing on a manifesto that wants to take action on child poverty and review our benefits system to make sure work pays, to make sure people are supported, to improve the investment we make in the earliest of years, to support people in work, to say 'yes' to taking devolution forward, to say 'yes' to economic stability, to say 'yes' to righting some of the injustices of our past, whether it's the Windrush commissioner, whether it's the action that we're going to take on justice in the miners' pension fund surplus, whether it's the truth on Orgreave. All of those things are on the ballot paper—a positive vision and a positive partnership. I look forward to a constructive relationship with a UK Labour Prime Minister if that is how the country votes. I won't take that for granted. If we do, though, I expect to have a UK Labour Government that meets our manifesto commitments, that keeps our promises, and I look forward to seeing how people in Wales choose to vote.