Assembly Diary

Adapted from my Rhondda Leader column:

The Assembly election result in May left Labour without an overall majority. Over the last eight weeks, attempts have been made to put together some form of coalition government in Cardiff Bay.

I would myself obviously have preferred a majority Labour government – or failing that, for Labour to govern as a minority, winning support from the other parties issue by issue.

Unfortunately, those options are not available. We don’t have a majority, and if we try and go it alone, we will be voted down by the other parties.

We therefore have to agree a programme in co-operation with another party. My preference would have been for Labour to form an alliance with the Liberal Democrats. However, the Liberals placed themselves in such an impossible negotiating position that that option does not exist.

The only choice facing Labour therefore is to agree a joint programme with Plaid Cymru, or go into Opposition and see Wales run by a coalition of Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

I believe such a coalition would be a disaster for the Rhondda and a disaster for Wales. It would mean the Valleys losing out. In recent years we have seen major investments in the Rhondda from the Assembly, like the new hospital currently being built in Llwynypia and the Porth Rhondda Fach Relief Road.

I believe that the people of Wales expect Labour, as the largest party, to lead the government in the Assembly. I do not believe that they want us to go into opposition and see Tory ministers running public services in Wales.

Reluctantly, therefore, I think the only option before us at the present time is a coalition in the Assembly with Plaid Cymru.

I am not a nationalist and I am opposed to nationalism and to the idea of ‘independence’ for Wales. We will have no truck with independence in the coalition government.

The agreement which will go to Labour’s conference on Friday means that the new government will implement Labour’s commitments to reduce hospital waiting times and invest in affordable housing and childcare.

As the Labour candidate who won the Rhondda Assembly seat back from Plaid Cymru in 2003, I can promise the people of the Rhondda that Labour will focus on the issues that matter.