Keir Starmer has used his keynote speech at the Welsh Labour conference to launch an attack on Nigel Farage, as the prime minister turned from fighting off a rebellion of his own MPs, to fighting off the threat of Reform.
Starmer said Farage was “taking people for fools” in Wales, and criticised the Reform leader’s recent visit to Port Talbot, during which he demanded the reopening of Welsh coalmines to provide fuel for the town’s now shuttered steel-making blast furnaces.
“Just look what he said … pretending he has a plan to reopen a blast furnace. Nigel Farage isn’t interested in Wales. He is interested in Nigel Farage,” Starmer said.
The prime minister also warned of a “backroom stitch-up” between Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Reform UK before the Senedd elections next May that he said would mark a “return to the chaos and division of the last decade”.
Starmer’s appearance came amid an escalating crisis for the government over its unpopular welfare bill. Number 10 is still battling to win support for the changes among its own MPs with claims that hastily announced concessions will create a “two-tier” system where existing and new claimants of disability benefits are treated differently.
Acknowledging the row in his speech, Starmer said “everyone agrees” the welfare system needed to be fixed.
He said: “We cannot take away the safety net that vulnerable people rely on, and we won’t, but we also can’t let it become a snare for those who can and want to work.
“Everyone agrees that our welfare system is broken: failing people every day, a generation of young people written off for good and the cost spiralling out of control.
“Fixing it is a moral imperative, but we need to do it in a Labour way.”
In Wales next year, polls suggest Labour – which has led every Welsh government since devolution – will come in third place, and Reform UK could be the biggest party.
Plaid Cymru has repeatedly ruled out working with either the Conservatives or Reform UK in next year’s Senedd. “Labour has had decades to deliver for Wales,” a Plaid Cymru spokesperson said in response to Starmer’s comments.
“If this is Labour’s big pitch to the people of Wales, then frankly, they’re scraping the barrel. Instead of offering hope, they’re peddling fiction about imaginary coalitions.”
The prime minister also sought to downplay signs of infighting between the Westminster and Cardiff Bay governments, telling delegates the two Labour administrations are “working together for the people of Wales”, and praising the first minister, Eluned Morgan, as a “fierce champion” and the “the best person” to lead the country into the future.
Last month Morgan made a public attempt to distance her leadership from her Westminster counterpart’s, using a speech to criticise the UK government’s plans to cut winter fuel payments and disability benefits, which she said would “harm Welsh communities”.
Westminster has since rowed back on both policies, the latter after more than 120 Labour MPs threatened a rebellion. Labour Senedd members have privately said they are shocked that only five Welsh Labour MPs had said they would vote against the welfare bill, despite research showing it will disproportionately affect people in Wales.
Steve Witherden, the MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, who was one of the first within the Labour party to publicly criticise the welfare bill, told the BBC that the climbdown was “not enough”.
He joined a pro-Palestinian protest outside the conference venue, alongside John Griffiths, the MS for Newport East, calling for a halt to UK arms sales to Israel.
In her keynote speech, Morgan welcomed Downing Street’s U-turn on the disability benefits reforms, and called the next Senedd election “a moment of reckoning”.
The first minister spent about half the speech painting a vision for Wales’s future, saying “only Welsh Labour has the courage and clarity to deliver”.
“Reform are rising. Plaid are mobilising … We’re the party of answers, not the party of excuses, not the party of fear. But make no mistake – they are a threat to your NHS, to your rights – to the Welsh way of life.”
Starmer made the case that the Westminster and Cardiff Labour governments were already delivering for Wales, pointing to the largest ever devolution settlement for Wales, new investment zones in Wrexham and Cardiff, freeports in Anglesey and Port Talbot, record funding for Wales’s railways and clearing coal tips in this month’s spending review, and shrinking NHS waiting lists.
“This first year was about clearing up the mess the Tories left. Now our focus is firmly on the future,” he said.
Also on Saturday, Morgan said Wales would host a “world leading AI growth zone”. Jo Stevens, the secretary of state for Wales, announced a new £11m fund for businesses in the Port Talbot area.