FIRST MINISTER Mark Drakeford started the new year today by continuing to refuse to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, but restored some of his left credentials with moves to bring services back into the Welsh public sector.
Socialist supporters of Mr Drakeford in Wales ended 2023 by urging him to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and will be disappointed by his continued refusal.
The First Minister told a press conference today that the scenes in the Middle East are shocking and distressing, but declined to join Humza Yousaf, his counterpart in Scotland, in a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The First Minister said: “My view and wish is for the fighting to stop but a wish is not enough to stop the conflict.”
Mr Drakeford said that the United Nations had called for a ceasefire, but the fighting continued and he said that “calling for one does not always work.”
Peace campaigners in Wales have already said that Mr Drakeford “was on the wrong side of history” by refusing to call for a ceasefire and will be disappointed that the continued slaughter in Gaza has not prompted a change of heart.
The Star asked Mr Drakeford about the £1.3 billion of budget cuts facing public services, and Welsh trade unionists will be heartened by Mr Drakeford’s response: that his government will bring services back into the public sector.
Unison Cymru Wales regional secretary Jess Turner had called on the First Minister to “urge decision-makers to avoid knee-jerk reactions to budget cuts by instead focusing on future sustainability through measures like insourcing.”
Mr Drakeford had said he was signed up to the basic principle but argued that, 30 to 40 years on from the onset of neoliberalism, with so many services now provided by the private sector, this would not be easy — but would be done.
And he pledged a step, that “in the next three months, we will move to eliminate private profit-taking from services for looked-after children in Wales.
“I want the money that the public invest in the lives of looked-after children to all go towards the service and not leak out as profit,” Mr Drakeford said.
