First Minister sets out case for Labour UK Government at conference

WELSH Labour leader Mark Drakeford will today set out that only the next Labour Government can save the United Kingdom.

In his keynote speech to the Welsh Labour Conference in Llandudno, he will say that after 13 years of Conservative governments, the union of the United Kingdom is “in peril as never before”.

“Thirteen years of a party that has thrived on dividing our country, hurting the most vulnerable, striking at the institutions and the values that have bound us together – our openness, our generosity, our power to be a force for good in the world.

He will argue that only Labour can rebuild the case for the United Kingdom – a case of solidarity, self-government and shared government.

Almost a quarter of a century after a Labour government devolved powers to Wales and Scotland, and following the publication of Gordon Brown’s radical proposals for further devolution within the UK, Mark Drakeford will say: “We don’t do that by defending the status quo.

“By nervously keeping power at the centre. And trying to impose from Whitehall as this government has done time and again.

“Rather, it is by building a new partnership of equals based on mutual respect. It’s having the confidence to redistribute power and opportunity – radically – to every community, every nation, every part of our country.”