WELSH Labour’s conference this weekend is an opportunity for the party to review its progress in achieving the goals of the ambitious Programme for Government and to look ahead to the priorities for the left in power. 

Mark Drakeford’s leadership continues to demonstrate the positive vision the left can project, can inspire voters with, and deliver from office. 

In contrast, the Conservative government in Westminster continues to oversee a cost-of-living crisis, miserable pay offers and underfunded, declining public services, inaction on the climate and a desperate attempt to distract from its failings by whipping up hostility to refugees. 

What Drakeford’s leadership shows is the positive alternative in our grasp, and also shows the direction Keir Starmer and UK Labour should pursue to win power. 

The fundamentals of the Programme for Government were a commitment to renewed universal public services — removing the cost of private profit by seeking to restore services to public sector and the guarantee of minimum provisions to allow everyone to live fulfilling lives. 

Iconic examples in the document were the proposals for a publicly owned energy company, a national construction company and a national care service. 

The policy advances of the past year, including the introduction of the real living wage for care workers, the start of the universal basic income pilot, the rollout of universal free school meals for primary school pupils, investment in new low-carbon homes for social rent, and the recent proposals for public energy generation and a clear path to 100 per cent renewably sourced power are all markers of a left agenda and a positive relationship with progressive movement campaigns. 

How we embed both the overarching principles and these concrete developments — and make them irreversible — is key at this conference. 

There are some great discussions on the fringe. I am pleased to be joining Cwmpas and the Co-operative Party in discussing the benefits of community wealth building, to be joining the Electoral Reform Society to discuss Senedd reform, and of course, Welsh Labour Grassroots, to continue renewing the left for the next period. 

I too hope there is a chance to demonstrate our solidarity with refugees and commitment to being a nation of sanctuary, in contrast to the Conservative assault on asylum-seekers.  

But there have also been problems over the past period that the conference must address. 

The relationship between Wales and Westminster remains unresolved and a source of tension. The underfunding of UK public services and public servants has affected Wales. 

The impact of a decade of Conservative austerity from Westminster, slashing our local authorities and public services central funding, and the loss of European regional funds, has left Wales poorer. 

The so-called Levelling Up initiatives are a fig-leaf to cover that loss. But Hunger Games-style competitive tendering for one-off projects, administered from London and bypassing Cardiff are an insult, and have so far left many areas across Wales with nothing to point to. 

And Wales has not been immune to the trade unions public-sector pay strikes, despite Welsh Labour being in power, and despite clarity from Drakeford that Welsh public-sector workers deserve an inflation-proofed pay rise. 

I welcomed the Welsh government entering into meaningful negotiations with trade unions and making the offer of a larger pay settlement to staff in Wales but it is necessary that while Welsh government and the trade unions in Wales continue their negotiations it is also vital that Welsh Labour joins with the unions and demands a better pay deal across Britain, both for 2022-23 and for the upcoming year from the Conservatives in Westminster. 

Winning power also means the opportunity to share it. Welsh government’s expansion of the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds, proposals to expand the Senedd and introduce multi-member seats are all examples of this.  

Longer-term, my belief, which is one I’ve long held, is that Wales needs a better funding formula from Westminster, based on a calculation assessing genuine need rather than simply population. 

This debate has lasted for a decade now, including the Welsh government’s independent commission on funding and finance for Wales, known as the Holtham commission. 

But after 13 years of Conservative government cuts and with positive polling for Labour ahead of the next Westminster election, I believe that the Welsh government must join forces with Wales TUC and constituent unions and, with a civil society campaign, set out the case for a better funding formula for Wales, that Labour in government — both in London and Cardiff — can deliver. 

If Labour wins in Westminster, it needs to demonstrate it has learnt from the years the left has held power in Wales. 

Beth Winter is Labour MP for Cynon Valley.