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Interview A campaigner for greater Labour democracy and openness

Welsh Labour Party leader MARK DRAKEFORD talks to the Star about Brexit, party structure and transforming the Welsh economy

MARK DRAKEFORD became first minister for Wales in December 2018 after his election as Welsh Labour leader and has been busy putting his campaign policy pledges into action.

But before we discuss progress on the many progressive changes Drakeford wants to make to Welsh life, he has something to say about the chaotic mess the Conservative government in Westminster is making of Brexit and the threat that poses.

Drakeford is a thoughtful man but his anger was palpable about the issue of funding for Wales after the UK leaves the European Union.

He intends to use part of his leader’s speech at today’s Welsh Labour conference to set out his opposition if the Westminster government persists in its policy for a shared prosperity fund in which money and powers are taken away from Wales.

Drakeford references a promise made by the leader of the Conservatives in Wales during the referendum “that we would not be a penny worse off” after Brexit.

“If they take money and powers away from Wales they will have a fight on their hands. Wales is used to having to fight for what we need from a Tory government that understands us not at all and is interested in us even less.

“I will echo the old miners’ slogan of ‘not a penny off the pay and not a minute on the day’ at today’s Welsh Labour conference.” 

Drakeford is toying with revamping the slogan to ‘not a penny lost to Wales and not a power stolen’.”

Brexit and the austerity policies of Theresa May’s government have dominated the political landscape in his first three months and he is scathing about the paralysis gripping the Westminster government.

“I will not allow Brexit to do to the Welsh government what it has done to the UK government. It is overwhelmed by Brexit and we cannot get a decision out of them on everyday things, no matter how mundane.

“It claims to be the Conservative and Unionist Party but as far as I can tell it pays scant attention to the future of the union. Whereas in Wales we are taking a genuine and creative interest in finding ways in which the UK can succeed the other side of Brexit.

“Labour in Wales is a fiercely devolutionist party and we believe that decisions that only apply in Wales should be made in Wales. 

“But we believe that the interests of working people in Wales are closely aligned with the interests of working people elsewhere in the United Kingdom and we want a successful country run with redistributive policies alongside a Jeremy Corbyn-led UK government.”

The former probation officer and professor of social policy put together an impressive progressive manifesto during the recent Welsh Labour leadership contest and has clear ideas of how to transform the Welsh economy, environment and create a more equal Wales.

Asked to identify which of those detailed policies will be for this Assembly term of office and what will be put into the manifesto for the 2021 Senedd elections it becomes clear that he has an equally ambitious implementation plan.

Drakeford has used his first months in office putting into place the machinery to ensure that those campaign promises actually happen.

“The first couple of months we have drawn up a plan to ensure that we have people responsible for each of the elements, a timetable agreed and mechanism to ensure they are on track.”

He proudly lists those promises which have already been implemented: a Cabinet minister for north Wales; equal numbers of women and men in cabinet; pre-appointment hearings for people appointed by the government to major posts so the Assembly has a chance to assess whether they are the right person for the job.

As a campaigner for greater Labour democracy and openness, Drakeford was a prominent supporter of one member one vote and was a leading figure in campaigning to get the Welsh Labour leadership post elected by OMOV, rather than the electoral college.

“I said I wanted to ensure that the party’s democracy review moves us further in the direction that the thousands of people we have attracted into membership know that the party belongs to them and their voice is decisive in our affairs.”

He has started the process of throwing open the windows of party democracy by small reforms which Drakeford believes will create more open and inclusive structures.

“The names of the members of the Welsh Executive Committee (WEC) are now on our website and I intend that our executive meeting agendas will be online as well. 

“My reports to WEC are now written so that they can go onto our website so that people know what the party leader is reporting on their behalf. We will move to a default position where all papers discussed at the executive are also on our party website.

“The Welsh member of Labour’s national executive is currently a patronage position appointed by the first minister and we agreed at last weekend’s Welsh executive that will be an elected position in future so that the members choose.

“We have also agreed that the women’s conference in Wales in future will be decision-making and not just an advisory conference, ensuring that we strengthen women’s voices in our party.”

But it is in the field of the environment and economy that Drakeford campaigned in poetry, setting out a radical transformation of the Welsh economy by creating green jobs through new renewable technologies based on Welsh physical resources of wave and wind.

He is leading discussions along with Environment Minister Lesley Griffiths with developers of marine technology to explore how that can be used and to create a regime in Wales where the marine environment is protected while harnessing it to create new energy sources and jobs.

Drakeford has also recently been meeting to discuss how the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon can be revived and what can be done with tidal technology in north Wales as well. “I am very committed in making sure the government plays its part in making sure it happens.”

The foundational economy sounds like the sort of dry academic subject that Drakeford would have discussed in his university days as a professor.

But he is a passionate believer in ensuring that the Welsh economy is transformed so that the jobs created protect local communities from the vagaries of international capital. 

“The great benefit of foundational economy jobs is they are not footloose. They stay in the places where the jobs are created and provide local people with a long-term sense of economic rootedness that inward investment cannot.”

Drakeford famously was not looking forward to First Minister’s Questions and I asked him how he thought he was doing. 

“I remain somebody who is deeply interested in the things we do that make a difference to people’s lives. There are front-of-stage parts of the job, like FMQs, and I do my best. My mum sometimes says she saw me on television and when I ask her what she thought she says: ‘Oh, I wasn’t listening’.”

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