Starmer to warn of 'backroom stitch-up' in Welsh elections
Sir Keir Starmer will warn of a 'backroom stitch-up' between the Tories, Reform UK and Plaid Cymru ahead of key elections in Wales next year. In a speech to the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, the Prime Minister is set to say that a coalition of those parties would be a 'return to the chaos and division of the last decade'.
It would risk rolling back the progress his party is starting to make, he will claim. Welsh First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan meanwhile will call next year's polls a 'moment of reckoning' and 'serious threat' as Reform UK is 'rising' and Plaid Cymru 'mobilising'.
And Labour will announce funding to help those made redundant by the Tata Steel closure in Port Talbot. Reform UK is eyeing an opportunity to end Labour's 26 years of domination in the Welsh Parliament at the Senedd elections in May next year. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
Labour performed poorly in this year's local elections in England, which saw Nigel Farage's party win a swathe of council seats. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has not ruled out making deals with Plaid Cymru or Reform at the next Senedd election.
Welsh Labour leader Baroness Morgan will say the election is not going to be a 'routine affair'. She will add: 'It will be a moment of reckoning. Reform are rising. Plaid are mobilising.
"And across the country, people are asking big, serious questions about the kind of future they want for Wales. This is not a moment to look away.
"This is the moment to look forward - a moment of maximum opportunity and, yes, also of serious threat. It's time to stand up. It's time to get involved.'
The conference in Llandudno comes on the heels of Sir Keir's U-turn on welfare policy to avert a major backbench rebellion that will leave Chancellor Rachel Reeves facing a scramble to fill a potential hole in her budget this autumn.
Ahead of marking a year in office next week, Sir Keir will point to moves his Government has made since the election that he says bring direct benefits to Wales, including international trade deals that give a boost to brands such as Penderyn whisky and legislation to bolster workers' rights.
Wales Secretary Jo Stevens is set to announce a new £11 million fund for businesses offering skilled employment in Port Talbot as it seeks to help those left unemployed by Tata Steel's closure of the steelworks.
The fund is made up of £6.78 million from the Government and £5 million from Tata Steel. 'The Tories abandoned our steelworkers. Reform want to cancel the Electric Arc Furnace, throw away 5,000 jobs, and send people back down the mines.
'We have the backs of our steelworkers, their families and local businesses,' Ms Stevens will say. Sir Keir will tout the advantages of having parallel Labour governments in Westminster and Wales, with Baroness Morgan leading the latter as a 'fierce champion'.
'This is the party that has got wages rising faster in the first 10 months than the Tories managed in 10 years. This is the government that is cutting bills and creating jobs. This is the movement that will rebuild Britain and renew Wales,' Sir Keir is expected to say.
Labour is the party with the 'interests of working people at their heart' and 'it always will be', he will say. "Or, there's the other option. The risk of rolling back all the progress we're beginning to make. A return to the chaos and division of the last decade.
'A backroom stitch-up between the Tories, Reform and Plaid. And once again, it will be working families left to pick up the bill.
"Whether that's with Reform, or with Plaid's determination to cut Wales off from the rest of the country – with no plan to put Wales back together.'
The Conservatives have said that Labour has 'let Wales down for far too long'.
Shadow Welsh secretary Mims Davies said: 'Divisions between a complacent Welsh Labour and Starmer's failing UK Government in Westminster have simply not improved Wales's outlook, despite the fabled benefit of two Labour Governments in Wales, which is absolute bunkum.'
She also added: 'Labour has let Wales down for too long, taken people for granted and now the PM is making a mess of the entire United Kingdom.'
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An email appears to show that in one of these meetings he discussed various business objectives with the firm. Freeman, 57, who was first elected as an MP in 2010, resigned as science minister from Rishi Sunak's government in November 2023. He later complained he could not afford to pay his £2,000 a month mortgage on a ministerial salary of £118,300. In April last year, he began acting as a paid adviser to GHGSat Limited, which uses satellites and aircraft sensors to measure greenhouse gases, including methane, from industrial sites and helps businesses monitor and reduce their emissions. Freeman appears to have broken multiple rules set out in the MPs' code of conduct, including lobbying on behalf of a private company he was paid by and using the parliamentary estate for his private business interests. 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Leaked emails suggest that, while on the payroll, he tabled written parliamentary questions to government departments with the help of the managing director, Dan Wicks. Written parliamentary questions are seen as a vital tool for MPs, allowing them to seek data or information not in the public domain, or press the government to take action. They are only supposed to be tabled as part of their parliamentary duties and not their private business interests. At 11.35am on November 27 last year, Freeman emailed Wicks to notify him that 'following our latest catch up I'm preparing some written parliamentary questions to table on the DSIT [Department for Science and Technology] space data and Desnz [Department for Energy Security and Net Zero] emissions tracking platforms. 'So that I get the wording right can you email me the key technical terms / names of the projects / frameworks and what to ask about & I'll then convert into the right parliamentary language.' At 4.29pm, Wicks replied that Freeman should ask questions of the DSIT to better understand whether it would continue 'investment in national space data activities'. He then listed three specific areas he could ask about. The first was to ask the DSIT whether it would continue to invest in 'the Earth observation Data Pilot run by the Geospatial Commission and whether that will be extended or grown into a pan-government purchasing mechanism'. This was a government-run pilot launched in 2023, when Freeman was still science minister, which was testing ways public bodies could access satellite data to better inform 'analysis in key policy areas, including land use, environmental monitoring and emergency response'. Wicks's second proposal was for Freeman to ask the DSIT whether it planned to 'continue funding the Earth observation data hub as a tool for public sector to access and make use of different Earth observation data'. 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