Labour leader Keir Starmer has defended Welsh Labour's record on the NHS in Wales despite the Labour-led Welsh Government giving health services a smaller funding increase in Wales than the NHS in England is receiving. See our report on the Welsh Government's budget here.
Sir Keir was in Wales to help the party launch its campaign for the local elections in May. He spoke at the event at Bridgend College alongside Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford and Rhondda Cynon Taf leader Andrew Morgan. He said that Labour in Wales has taken the right decisions with the health service in Wales and that he is "proud" of all its decisions.
When stories like those of Emlyn Roberts who spent 10 hours on the pavement waiting for an ambulance or the mum-of-two who spent days waiting in A&E at the Grange Hospital, were put to him, Sir Keir said: "The Welsh Labour government is taking difficult decisions in difficult circumstances. I don't know the individual circumstances of incidents around Wales forgive me. But I do think that the overall approach is the right approach and that was taken to the country last May, it'll be taken to the country again in these local elections and with that simple message if you value vote for it, and that's what people did last year."
Asked if he was proud of his party's record in Wales, he said: "I'm proud of all the decisions that Welsh Labour take and as I say, the endorsement of that, I think was in the vote last May, but we now need to do is to build on that with the local elections because what I want to see is local councils here in Wales working hand in hand with the national governments here in Wales, making an even bigger difference to people's lives."
Asked if he thought the Welsh Government was right to give a smaller increase to the NHS this year in Wales than the NHS in England is receiving, he said: "I think the Welsh Government has taken difficult but the right decisions and the test I think, for whether people think WG has got it right or wrong, was very much last May when Mark Drakeford and the team essentially said to voters here in Wales 'if you value what we're doing, vote for it' and they then turned in the sort of second best or equal best result."
Rhondda Cynon Taf leader Andrew Morgan spoke at the event and said a "team approach" was needed "that we can really tackle the long-standing issues and those shorter term ones like the cost of living crisis".
Welsh leader Mark Drakeford said when people go to the polls on May 5 people will be voting for "some of the most important people they will chose to represent them in every part of Wales".
He said: "That is what your local councillor is. A good local councillor, a good local Labour councillor is someone who is there in their community day in, day out, every day, every week, doing the things that matter the most in people's lives. That's why these elections are so important. They will choose the bedrock of political life here in Wales for another five years".
He described the current cost of living crisis as being "Tory-made". "It has not come out of thin air. A decade of austerity has undermined the capacity of hard-working families right across Wales to withstand the stresses and strains that are about to be vested upon them."
In his speech, Sir Keir said he was "proud" to be in Wales. "In Wales we can do something that is so important for Labour which is to show Labour works. Labour makes a difference to all those lives and that's because of what we've been able to do here in Wales."
