Over a hundred Labour MPs in Westminster have publicly said they will revolt agains Prime Minster Sir Kier Starmer’s welfare reform bill, and Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has urged Wales’ Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan to pick a side.
00:01Sir Keir Starmer has never faced a rebellion like he's going through at the moment in Westminster.
00:05More than 100 of his MPs have turned against party lines to say they will not back the upcoming benefits reform bill
00:11that critics say could put thousands of disabled people into poverty.
00:14And here in Wales, Sreenath Yorworth says that we're more affected than other parts of the country.
00:19So Aline Ed Morgan, as the leader of Labour in Wales, might have to pick a side.
00:23It seems there are now enough potential Labour rebels to stop the reforms when the welfare reform bill is voted on next week.
00:30Though, despite Wales being hit disproportionately hard, it appears that only a handful of Labour MPs from Wales are on that list of rebels.
00:40So, as the Labour leader in Wales, will she urge her members at Westminster to rebel, to protect disabled people in Wales and guard Welsh spending,
00:50or will she urge them to remain loyal to Keir Starmer?
00:53I just think we've got to be very serious about this, because this is an issue that's causing concern to a lot of people in Wales.
01:02And as you know, benefit reform is not devolved to Wales, but Welsh Labour will always be the party that wants to encourage and to support people back into work.
01:12We are the Labour party, and we're not going to apologise for that.
01:16But on the other hand, it is important that we have fairness in the system, and that we protect the most vulnerable on every occasion.
01:25We have made the case very clearly to the Secretary of State responsible, in terms of the impact that we think it will have on people in Wales.
01:36We have urged her to consider the case we have made, and obviously it will be up to the MPs to determine how they vote.
01:44And Elynyad Morgan, before coming the First Minister, was the Health Minister, and made promises on cutting hospital waiting times, which have largely been missed.
01:52Darren Miller, the Welsh Conservative leader, says that there are far more issues than just waiting times to combat in Wales.
01:59As a recent report from a South Wales coroner says people are dying needlessly due to issues with ambulance handovers.
02:05Welsh coroners have repeatedly raised concerns about deaths following excessive delays with ambulance response times.
02:13They've published 25 health-related prevention of future death reports since you became First Minister in August of last year.
02:21First Minister, what action has your Welsh Government taken in response to these reports, and what urgent steps have you taken?
02:29There has been a huge amount of work done to try and move forward with a programme of how we can speed up that response.
02:41And I know that the Health Secretary has been pressing the Welsh Ambulance Service hard and invested this week more in ambulances to support that work.
02:53We know there's more work to do, but there are examples across the whole country where things are improving.
