'A bad start even before he starts' - Welsh First Minister on why trouble's brewing with Burnham
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What motivated Rhun ap Iorwerth to become Wales' first minister and how did he prepare for the role?
Hello and welcome to Political Thinking. The big idea of the man who looks almost certain to be our next Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is devolution. The former mayor of Greater Manchester argues that taking more decisions away from Whitehall and away from Westminster doesn't just make for better policy, it could make us all richer. That is music to the ears of my guest on political thinking this week. A man who's just himself. Got a very big new job as First Minister of Wales. He's Renap Eurth, the leader of Plyde Cymru, the party which favours independence for Wales, and which won an election for the first time in its history, ending a century of Labour dominance. One reason why Keir Starmer was forced by his own MPs to leave office.
Dreen Abioreth, welcome back to political thinking and I should say congratulations. Thank you very much, Nick. It's good to be here. You have experienced the whirlwind of going from opposition, from not having power to having it. We'll talk about what that means for you, but you got any tips for Andy Burnham?
Plan. Uh and I think we planned very, very carefully for coming into office and that's standing us in good stead now. We weren't taking anything for granted, but if things did go in our direction we were ready to go, and that's been proved true. Maybe he hasn't had much time to prepare, or maybe he has. But without a plan, what's the danger? Well there's a real danger of not being focused. Not just yourself not being focused, but the people who will be holding you to account. So we produced a first hundred days plan for ourselves. So we knew the order in which we thought we needed to get things done in order to get the wheels of government moving on the policies and the ideas that were important to us.
But it's also important that you tell people, right, this is what we're gonna do, hold us to account. Account for it. I want my government to be a very open one. We have to be providing people the tools by which they can hold us to accounts. We'll talk more about what you're trying to do.
Do and the problems you're facing as well as some of the joy I imagine that you're still enjoying as well. But let's talk about that personal joy first of all when you got the job. I mean, for you it must have been a hugely emotional moment. As we've talked before on political thinking, you know, you grew up with this belief in more
Power for Wales. And it's not just that I have always believed that, but there are hundreds of thousands of people who believe in Wales and wanted Wales to spread its wings, and who felt constrained by being led by political parties that ultimately have their bosses in London and could never really say, no, we're focused on you, we represent you. And when Plied Cambri did get that victory, which was a clearer victory than most of us could have imagined, even, there was a sense of relief, of feeling we were right. We were right that we could unite Wales behind this kind of vision, which we did. Every part of Wales, half of all our capitals, Senate members, or Plied Cymbury Senate members. The same for Swansea than South.
East, the North East. This is Wales United. But of course there's a plurality of voices there too. It's a minority government and I recognise that in all I do.
What was striking that moment you're on the steps of the Senith in Cardiff, the morning after the result, is suddenly they will break into song.
Yeah.
You ha do you have any idea that was gonna happen, that the Welsh national anthem would ring out as you're meant to be taking
questions from Jill? No, I I had no idea. And and to be honest with you, I didn't have an appreciation of the likelihood that that kind of event would take place on the steps of the Sened. We had asked all our members for a good result or a bad one to be in Cardiff by that Saturday morning so that we could potentially regroup and think what went wrong, or hopefully as we thought the weather was blowing in that that direction to have a bit of a moment on the Steps of the Senate. What I hadn't appreciated was quite how many people would want to be there to share that that moment.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What motivated Rhun ap Iorwerth to become Wales' first minister and how did he prepare for the role?
0:00–4:34
2
How did Plaid Cymru plan its first hundred days in government and why is transparency important?
4:34–8:19
3
What emotions and symbolic moments marked the night of the election victory?
8:19–15:03
4
How does Rhun view the relationship with a future UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on devolution and funding?
15:03–20:34
5
What are the challenges of funding, the Barnett formula and the supplementary budget for Wales?
20:34–26:20
6
How does the Welsh government plan to address health, childcare and cost‑of‑living pressures?
26:20–32:11
7
What is Rhun’s stance on defence, NATO and Wales’ role in international security?
32:11–34:03
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
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