LABOUR launched its Senedd campaign today in Newport and invoked the spirit of the Chartist movement as it seeks re-election to continue governing Wales.

First Minister Eluned Morgan said: “We chose Newport to launch our campaign because this city carries something in its bones — a refusal to be told to wait your turn.”

The 1839 Newport Rising saw Chartists demonstrating for votes for all, political reform and the release of imprisoned comrades, but was brutally put down with more than 20 people killed by soldiers.

Polling has put Welsh Labour bumping around at 10 per cent, which would see Ms Morgan lose her seat and drastically cut the party’s Senedd members to a tiny rump.

That poll anxiety has seen the party postpone its spring conference and start its campaign two months out from the May 7 polling day.

There were missteps in the campaign launch, with some trade unions absent as they were invited too late to be able to attend.

Ms Morgan set out five pledges to tackle the cost of living through cheaper bus fares, lower energy bills and expanding childcare.

She pledged to end homelessness by 2034, with no children in bed and breakfast accommodation by 2033, but cynics might point to the party’s 2021 Welsh government plan to end homelessness by this year.

The First Minister also said there would be pay rises for care workers and full-year-round pay for school support staff.

Unison Cymru regional secretary Jess Turner said: “Public-sector workers will welcome the commitment to a fair pay agreement for social care as well as confirmation that the scandal of term-time only pay for school support staff will finally end.

“Policies that lift low-paid women out of in-work poverty must be a priority.

“A minimum £15 an hour in care and year-round pay for all school staff are issues at the heart of Unison’s Senedd manifesto being launched later this week.”

Welsh Labour has already announced a £2 bus fare cap, and £1 fares for young people, along with a freeze for the next year in the price of rail tickets.

Unite Wales welcomed the pledges but said it will want to see the details in the party manifesto to fully understand the implications for its members and workers across Wales.

GMB Wales’s Tom Hoyles said: “Labour’s commitment to ending term-time only contracts is a long-held GMB aspiration and would see thousands of our members getting the pay they deserve.

“We’re glad that Welsh Labour are pledging it as a cornerstone position for their next government.”

Labour also said they would spend £4bn to build new hospitals, with same-day mental health support services introduced as a pilot across each of the seven NHS health boards.

But waiting lists for mental health treatment remain stubbornly high, with an estimated 6,000 people waiting for an appointment.

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “This is tired stuff from a party that has been in power in Wales for almost 30 years and has run out of ideas.”