Is Labour in Wales set for a left turn?

IT’S interesting to have it confirmed that the left wing of the National Assembly’s Labour group will be fielding a candidate when Carwyn Jones eventually stands down as First Minister.

Given Jeremy Corbyn’s landslide victories in two party leadership contests, and a much better than expected performance by the party in this year’s General Election, there’s a certain inevitability about the news.

All the left wing of Welsh Labour now needs is a credible programme to distinguish its offering from that of the current Welsh Government. That may not be easy.

In 2002, in his landmark “clear red water” speech, Rhodri Morgan explained how his administration’s governing philosophy differed from that of Tony Blair’s at Westminster.

While Blairite public sector reform in England involved introducing more of a private sector ethos, in Wales there would be a continuing emphasis on the intrinsic value of publicly delivered public services and on universal benefits, underpinned by an antipathy towards privatisation.

In articulating his vision, Rhodri Morgan did not seek to portray himself as a left winger. He always described his position as “classic Labour”, beginning his political career on what was the Hattersley right of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1987.

It was the rightward drift of Labour under Blair that made his classic Labour stance appear left wing in comparison.

Up until now, the Welsh Government has had no tax-levying powers, meaning its role has been to allocate the resources it has been provided with by the UK Treasury. As a consequence, Welsh Labour – which of course has been in office since the Assembly was established in 1999 – has not had the ability to raise taxes on higher earners, for example – a policy that would be distinctively left wing.

With income tax varying powers now available to the Welsh Government, the possibility arises that a future administration may decide to pursue such a course. Perhaps the left candidate in the expected 2019 Welsh Labour leadership contest will advocate a proposal of this kind. Radical policies can be implemented – but they tend to cost more than conservative ones. In the early years of devolution Wales benefited from a substantial uplift in public spending, ironically fuelled by increases to the Treasury block grant made when Tony Blair was Prime Minister and Gordon Brown the Chancellor.

Despite all the assumptions, of course, Carwyn Jones hasn’t yet confirmed that he will be standing down in 2019, and as of now there is no Welsh Labour leadership contest in the offing. We hope, however, that those considering putting their names forward to succeed him are already considering the kind of programme they will put together, and how it could be funded.

Brexit is looming, with all the challenges it will bring. It could be that a new First Minister is sworn in around the time we leave the EU. Politicians need to be thinking creatively. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%