WELSH First Minister Mark Drakeford accused the Tories of being “blindly wedded to the market,” saying this has made them “unwilling” to tackle the climate crisis.

Speaking to delegates at Labour’s conference in Brighton today, Mr Drakeford said: “In Wales, we are determined to play our part in responding to the defining challenge of our time — climate change.

“We know we have all the raw materials to make the second industrial revolution happen — we have the wind, the water and the waves.”

However, he claimed that the Westminster government was “frustrating” Labour’s efforts to harness renewable energies such as sea power, saying they were “unwilling to invest to create new opportunities in which the jobs of the future and the future of our planet go hand in hand.”

Mr Drakeford congratulated Jeremy Corbyn for committing the next Labour government to building the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, a proposed renewable energy plant that would create around 1,000 jobs in the local area.

He said that the commitment to Welsh jobs was “terrific,” adding that a “Labour government will work with Labour councils to keep Wales at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution and tackle climate change head on.”

The First Minister also called the Conservative Party a “single-issue sect” for its relaxed attitude towards a no-deal Brexit, saying Wales has already “been at the sharp edge of their economic and social destruction and dislocation.”

He summarised by saying that a “crash-out Brexit” could lose 50,000 jobs in Wales and urged Labour to “offer up a positive vision of something better.”

Mr Drakeford said he wanted a second referendum on Brexit, in which the Welsh government would campaign to remain.