Welsh Labour facing kicking at next election, warns ex-minister

Waters said the “recipe for recovery” in Wales was “being presented as a focus on ‘bread and butter’ issues and better communication, not a deeper challenge to the system of power and inequality”.

His blog criticised the first minister over comments she made on the Rest is Politics podcast, external.

Asked about what powers should lie in Cardiff, Morgan said she would not be giving powers back to Westminster but suggested “there are little areas around the edges, things like youth justice” that could be devolved.

Waters said Morgan had made “no mention of the Welsh government’s long-established policy of devolving policing and justice”.

“The risk with this approach is that it does nothing to challenge the perception that after over a century as the dominant party in Wales the Labour Party is seen as the establishment and simply seeks to manage the status quo,” he said.

In response a Welsh Labour spokesman said since becoming first minister Morgan has delivered “the largest financial settlement for Wales since devolution began, £50m to improve schools and college buildings, a £1bn investment in Shotton Mill alongside UK government colleagues, an extra £25m for coal tip safety, and free school lunches for every primary school child in Wales, and she’s only just getting started”.