First minister refuses to back welfare cuts

Wales’ first minister has refused to back UK government welfare cuts announced by the Labour chancellor earlier this week.

Giving evidence to a Senedd committee on Friday, Eluned Morgan said she wanted to “reserve my position” until she knew what the impact would be on Wales.

Welsh Labour leader Morgan also confirmed she was still waiting for a response from Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to her request for a Wales-specific impact assessment and said she was now seeking a meeting with her.

Morgan wrote to Kendall requesting an assessment on 11 March. She has previously described the delay as “disappointing”.

In her Spring Statement on Wednesday Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a number of benefit changes, including tightening qualification rules for Personal Independence Payments (Pips) – the main disability benefit – claimed by more than 250,000 working aged people in Wales.

In her address to MPs, Reeves said “it can’t be right” to “write off” an entire generation who are out of work and improperly using Pips.

Reeves also confirmed health-related universal credit for new claimants, which was already due to be halved from April 2026 under a package announced last week, would be frozen at its new lower level of £50 per week until 2030.

Health-related payments will be frozen for existing claimants.

A Department for Work and Pensions assessment found 3.2 million families across England and Wales would be worse off as a result of the changes, with 250,000 more people pushed into relative poverty.

On the principle of moving people from benefits to employment, Morgan told Friday’s committee “it would be a good thing to have more people in work in Wales”.

“Our employment rate is not nearly as good as some other countries, and we’ve seen a surge, particularly since the pandemic,” she said.

Asked directly by Plaid Cymru Senedd member Llyr Gruffydd to confirm she supported the changes, Morgan replied: “I have yet to get a firm understanding of how that will impact on Wales, and until I’m clear about the impacts I want to reserve my position in relation to that.”

Gruffydd then pointed out that Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens had told BBC Wales on Wednesday the first minister had “welcomed” the reforms.

At that point in the committee hearing Morgan simply sat quietly and declined to address the remark.

The first minister told the Senedd on 18 March that she had written to Kendall and “personally spoke to No 10” about changes to the benefits system.

During her evidence session, Morgan confirmed she had not spoken to the prime minister himself.

Asked by Gruffydd to confirm who she had spoken to, Morgan said: “It was some people in the No 10 unit, I can’t remember their names”.

Pressed further she said: “I can’t remember every single name of every person I meet because I meet hundreds of people every single day.”

Morgan said she would get back to the committee on the names of those in Downing Street she had spoken to.

She was appearing before the Senedd Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister.

By Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales political editor

Silence speaks a thousand words.

One of the key moments in today’s hearing came when Eluned Morgan decided to say nothing, after being told that the Welsh Secretary, Jo Stevens, said she had welcomed the reforms.

Morgan did tell the Senedd last week that reform was needed, but still doesn’t have the Wales-specific data to address her concerns about its impact.

Don’t expect opposition parties to stay quiet.

They’ll add this to the list of things where they say Eluned Morgan does not shout loudly enough for Wales.

In fairness to the first minister she appears to have spent a fair amount of time this week pushing for that Wales benefits analysis.

But Labour trumpeted the idea of two Labour governments working better for Wales during last summer’s general election.

Today will be remembered for that awkward silence during the committee hearing.