THE leaders of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru celebrated today a year of the co-operation agreement between the two parties in Cardiff.

First Minister Mark Drakeford and Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price launched the 12-month report amid calls from Welsh Conservatives to scrap the “vanity project.”

Mr Drakeford said: “Is there anything sadder than being a Welsh Conservative not offering solutions in Wales and playing silly Westminster party games with politics?

“We are in politics to make a difference to people’s lives and that is what the co-operation agreement has done.

“We have focused on those commitments which will help support people during this cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr Price said: “People ask us why can’t politicians work together in the national interest and that is what we are doing.

“When we launched the agreement a year ago today, we said it was about a different way of working compared to the disarray we have seen from the UK government over this past year.”

Some of the measures that the party leaders reported on were an extra 45,000 primary school children having the option of a free school lunch.

Universal free school meals started to be rolled out in September and will be supported by £200 million over three years.

All primary school children in Wales and more than 6,000 nursery-age pupils attending a maintained school will also be eligible for free school meals by 2024.

The agreement has also brought in measures, including via taxation, to help people live in their local communities by addressing the high number of second homes in Wales.

Both party leaders extended a welcome to the Morning Star’s appointment of a reporter in Wales and agreed that it added hugely to the plurality of the country’s media.