Party leaders butt heads over Westminster influence

Local TV

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth calls out First Minister Eluned Morgan over not having the influence over the Prime Minister that she first thought she might have.

Transcript

00:00I remember that for months people have been told that having two Labour Governments working

00:05together, one in Cardiff Bay and one in Westminster, would turn things around for Wales.

00:09Partnership in power, she now calls it.

00:11But when my colleague Sioned Williams asked her to seek help from the Labour UK Government

00:17to tackle child poverty, she said, this is the way that it works.

00:21Make sure that you ask your local MPs.

00:24I thought I gave you a lesson in how devolution works last week.

00:27Have I got to do this every week?

00:29I think it's important for us to recognise that there are areas that I'm responsible

00:35for.

00:36There are other areas that are not within our control.

00:38And of course we can have conversations with our party leaders.

00:42And the great thing is that I can have conversations with my party leader, who actually is now

00:47the Prime Minister of Britain.

00:50That's not something that the leader of Plaid Cymru will ever be able to do.

00:56Having two Labour Governments in place in Wales and Westminster was said to be a positive.

01:01But Eluned Morgan has said that the relationship is complicated.

01:05And Rhiannap Yardworth isn't convinced that it's the blessing that people once thought

01:08it could be.

01:09After that bizarre contact your MP comment, she then went on in an ITV interview to say

01:17that she had no more influence over Keir Starmer than she does over Donald Trump.

01:22Well, it turns out I've actually got more influence than I realised.

01:27I've been in power for 48 days.

01:30Already the Prime Minister of Britain has made a specific visit to Wales.

01:36And over the weekend I had the opportunity to speak with Keir Starmer, with Rachel Reeves,

01:43with Wes Streeting, with Ed Miliband, with Andy Burnham, with Sadiq Khan, all of these

01:47people.

01:48And I'm not impressed by name-dropping who you've been chatting with at the Labour Party

01:53conference.

01:54Your talk is cheap.

01:55We don't want talk the talk, we want walk the walk from this Welsh Government.

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