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Welsh First Minister defends her first year in office
First Minister and Labour leader in Wales, Baroness Eluned Morgan, delivers a keynote speech marking one year to the 2026 Senedd election, at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff, May 6, 2025

ELUNED MORGAN defended her first year as First Minister of Wales today as Plaid Cymru attacked her over NHS waiting lists and rising levels of child poverty.

Posting on her social media channels, Ms Morgan insisted that her Labour government had invested record sums in the NHS and worked with trade unions and employers to improve pay and conditions for social care staff.

She also talked up business-friendly policies and pointed out that every primary school pupil in Wales has access to free school meals.

“This past year, I’ve stuck to the promise I made to listen, to learn and to deliver,” she said.

But Plaid Cymru’s Heledd Fychan accused the First Minister of having a “record of failure.”

She said: “From missing her own target to eliminate two-year NHS treatment waits to faltering educational outcomes and rising levels of poverty in our communities … this is not how things should be.

“Not only has she failed to deliver better public services but she has failed to stand up to [Prime Minister Sir Keir] Starmer every time: on HS2, disability benefit cuts, winter fuel payments, the Crown Estate — I could go on.”

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