Welsh Labour still committed to demands for Senedd devolution, says Skates

Ken Skates says Welsh Labour has not ditched calls for new powers for the Senedd, after telling conference on Saturday that the party had focused too much on the issue in the past.

The Welsh Labour leader told the BBC it remained party policy that Labour wants Westminster to hand over control of policing and the Crown Estate.

He would not be drawn on whether it would be wrong for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to refuse devolving those powers.

Skates' comments followed a conference speech on Saturday where the party leader argued Labour had previously treated standing up for Wales as wanting more powers for the Welsh Parliament.

A report into Welsh Labour's defeat in the Senedd elections in May criticised the "Red Welsh Way" political strategy of former First Minister Eluned Morgan, arguing demands for more powers had fallen flat with voters.

The report was presented at the party's conference in Llandudno, which concluded on Sunday.

Skates said Red Welsh Way was a "response to divided opinion in the party" and said Morgan had been in an "unwinnable situation" when she became first minister in 2025.

Asked by the BBC Politics Wales programme whether Labour was still calling for powers on the Crown Estate and policing, Skates said: "I've been really clear, you know, we need transfers of powers on the basis of what's best for Wales from Westminster to Cardiff Bay, but that's been the focus of all debate for far too long.

"We haven't had a good debate, deep debate, about what powers need to be transferred onward from Cardiff Bay to places like Aberystwyth to Wrexham to Merthyr, to communities right across Wales."

Pressed on the same question for a second time, he said: "Yes, yes, and there's been no change in policy on that."

Asked if Burnham would be wrong to refuse the devolution of policing and the Crown Estate, he added: "This is a live debate that's taking place at the moment, and our party policy in Wales has not changed."

Owned by the monarch, the Crown Estate possesses more than £603m of land in Wales, including 65% of the seabed surrounding the coastline.

Both Labour and Plaid believe the estate should be devolved so money raised from windfarms and other projects can be spent exclusively in Wales - the UK government has previously argued it would make no commercial sense.

Andy Burnham has signalled he was open to the devolution of policing, although no firm proposals have yet been made.

In his speech on Saturday, Skates said Morgan had "steadied the ship" when she became Welsh Labour leader, "in the most difficult of times and the worst set of conditions".

He said Morgan "cleaned up the boy's mess".

Asked whether Skates took responsibility for being part of the "boy's mess" because he was co-chair of the campaign to elect Vaughan Gething, who later had to resign, he said: "Oh no, it wasn't just that.

"This was about the dysfunctional nature of the Senedd group. It was divided, and it was largely divided because of the boys.

"She came in the most difficult of times, and she led with incredible passion."

Ken Skates denied that the party had dropped the Red Welsh Way, or clear red water - both strategies used to distinguish Welsh Labour from UK Labour.

He said Labour would be "fighting as one team with a distinct offer to people and that is that we are going to seek health and wealth for all. Other parties have their own priorities.

"Our purpose is to make sure that people's lives improve and we'll be asking right across the parliamentary Labour party and councils in the trade union movement and of course in the Senedd, [is] what we're doing making people better off?"

Earlier, on BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme, Skates said the report by Prof Anand Menon's PF First was not a "charge sheet" but outlined "what went wrong over many, many years", and pointed to how Labour can recover.

"What's clear from the report is that Eluned was in an unwinnable situation when she took over leadership.

"We didn't lose because of Eluned, we lost in spite of Eluned's fierce, courageous leadership," he said.

He said the Red Welsh Way was "in response to divided opinion in the party at the time".

"We're a different party now. OK, we're smaller in number, but we are completely united in the Senedd.

"That helps in terms of ensuring that everybody is fighting for the same purpose."

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