Who leads Welsh Labour - Eluned Morgan or someone you've probably never heard of?

Martin Shipton

You don’t need to be a psephologist to realise that both Labour and Welsh Labour are in deep trouble.

Some will argue that the two entities are indistinguishable and are essentially the same thing, but that would be to erase the nuances and gloss over the fault lines that are currently tearing the party apart.

The fact that Labour is in such difficulties just 14 months after winning a landslide general election victory is a powerful illustration of how Keir Starmer has lost control.

The forced resignation of Angela Rayner as Deputy Prime Minister was a serious blow, but she was not a natural ally of Starmer’s. Far more damaging was the need to sack Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States over his disgraceful association with a convicted paedophile, hours after Starmer had offered him his continuing support.

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Watershed 

Mandelson had ingratiated himself with Trump - who would have no qualms about his association with Epstein - as part of Starmer’s policy of cosying up to the US President. The fact that so many Labour MPs demanded Mandelson’s sacking and that Starmer eventually bowed to the inevitability of his dismissal, has broken the iron discipline he had sought to impose on the parliamentary party. This could be seen as a watershed moment.

Disenchantment with Starmer is rife, both in the party and among voters. Some are openly calling for him to go. There is talk of Andy Burnham, the popular Mayor of Greater Manchester, fighting a by-election in his home region that may come up soon in readiness for a shot at the leadership.

Meanwhile the outlook for Welsh Labour seems dire. On Thursday the party’s candidate came fourth in a council by-election in Barry in a seat it had previously held.

More sensationally the Labour leader of Caerphilly council relinquished his post and resigned from the Labour Party in protest against the direction the party was taken.

The final straw for Sean Morgan was the way Welsh Labour officials excluded his council deputy Jamie Pritchard from the shortlist of would-be candidates for the Caerphilly by-election, caused by the tragic death of the Senedd Member Hefin David.

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Calling the shots

He told me of two meetings he had been involved with that convinced him that Welsh Labour general secretary Joe Lock was calling the shots in the party, not Eluned Morgan.

As we have previously reported, Cllr Pritchard was barred from the shortlist because of his historic tweets he made that were supportive of Jeremy Corbyn when Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party.

Cllr Morgan said: “I saw the dossier they used as the reason for keeping Jamie off the shortlist. There was nothing in it that was offensive or could fairly be used to justify his exclusion. It was a total stitch-up and it’s disgraceful. Jamie Pritchard is a hard worker who has done a lot to represent his community, and he has turned what was a solid Plaid Cymru ward into a solid Labour ward. He’s just the kind of person who would make an excellent MS.”

Cllr Morgan also objected to a decision by the party’s Welsh Executive Committee to allow party activist Chris Carter from Newport, who has already been selected as a closed list candidate for Casnewydd Islwyn, to seek selection for the Caerphilly by-election. The former council leader told me: “I told Joe Lock this was in contravention of party rules, but he pressed on anyway.

“Local members were angry, and although Jamie was barred, they wrote his name in and he would have been selected on the first vote. I was told that Richard Tunnicliffe [who was selected as the candidate] got just six votes on the first ballot.

“When everything was over, the great and the good turned up to be photographed with the candidate.”

On Monday this week - two days after the selection meeting - Eluned Morgan, Joe Lock and former MP Sir Wayne David went to see Cllr Morgan in his leader’s office.

'Disdain'

Cllr Morgan told me: “I wasn’t prepared to let Wayne David in my office. So far as I am concerned he has shown nothing but disdain for the local party and I refused to meet him. Baroness Morgan and Joe Lock told me I should accept things as they were and support the candidate who had been selected. I found it particularly outrageous that I was being ordered around by a paid official of the party whose salary I helped pay. He’s very arrogant and clearly has more power in the party than Baroness Morgan, who is the First Minister and leader of Welsh Labour. So far as I am concerned, what has happened is a disgrace and I want no part of it.

“Like most members of the party I am disgusted by the fact that the UK Government supplies weapons to Israel for its genocide in Gaza and has RAF aircraft carrying out surveillance flights and handing intelligence to the IDF. It’s a party with no morals.”

Cllr Morgan said he would be voting for Lindsay Whittle, the :Plaid Cymru candidate in the by-election: “The best way to defeat Reform is for Labour supporters to vote Plaid on this occasion. I’ve had many disagreements with Lindsay, but he cares for Caerphilly and I’m sure would do his best for the seat.”

Cllr Morgan said he had supported Jeremy Corbyn when he led the party and had expressed an interest in the new party he is setting up with Zarah Sultana, the former Labour and now Independent MP: “I want to see how the party will work before making a decision on whether to join it,” he said.

Good natured

Where does all this leave Eluned Morgan? I have known her for many years and believe she is a good natured person who has the interests of Wales at heart. But she seems prepared to go along with the control freakery of Welsh Labour’s officials, who are not loyal to her but to Keir Starmer.

She also seems happiest when engaging with community enterprises in the way you would expect a member of the Royal Family or a ceremonial president to do. The other day, for example, she dropped into a cafe in Blaenavon and ended up dancing with a member of staff.

This is all very well, but Eluned Morgan needs to face up to serious questions as next year’s Senedd election rapidly approaches.

I sent this email to her:

Dear Eluned,

I hope you’re very well - I enjoyed your latest dancing exploits in Blaenavon!

I’m putting together an op-ed today on the fallout for Welsh Labour of the circumstances under which the leader of Caerphilly council resigned his post and his membership of the party, and also of the party’s dire performance in yesterday’s Vale of Glamorgan by-election where my friend and former colleague Aled Blake came fourth.

In his resignation interview, Cllr Sean Morgan said he had spoken to both you and Joe Lock about the exclusion of Jamie Pritchard from the Caerphilly by-election shortlist because he had tweeted supportive messages about Jeremy Corbyn when he was the party leader.

According to Cllr Morgan you dismissed his concerns and told him to support the chosen candidate. Is that correct? Did you have any say in the decision to exclude Jamie Pritchard from the shortlist, and / or at what stage were you informed that he was to be excluded? Now that Cllr Morgan has resigned, Jamie Pritchard is the acting leader of the Labour group and the council. Do you think he should be permitted to become the council leader, should the group choose him?

I have spoken to many Labour Party members who are unhappy with what they perceive as the control freakery of Welsh Labour officials. They say you are not in charge of the party and that it is controlled by people who are loyal to Keir Starmer rather than you.

It has also been suggested that Welsh Labour apparatchiks are excluding potential candidates who would have an independent spirit, like Owain Williams, in favour of people who are more likely to be docile and not make demands for more devolution or be prepared to criticise the UK Government when it is taking actions not perceived to be in Wales’ best interests. How do you respond to these points?

All the best,

Martin

I didn’t get a response.