Huge few months for Eluned Morgan as Senedd returns
At the end of the last Senedd term, former first minister Vaughan Gething was unceremoniously oomphed out of his role, and was swiftly replaced by Eluned Morgan. She became the first female first minister Wales has ever had, and will be looking to get stuck in this term. But there are plenty of problems to be sorted.
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00:00The Senate has been off for a long time now, and we haven't seen our politicians out on
00:08the floor of Ashamba since July. Now, in just a few days, they'll be back with plenty to
00:13discuss with some major issues on the cards. Before the summer recess, we saw Vaughan Gething
00:18resign as First Minister after his incredibly controversial decision to accept a £200,000
00:24donation from a company previously found guilty of dumping illegal waste on a conservation
00:29site, among other issues. We then saw Eluned Morgan take the reins as First Minister after
00:35being the sole name put forward for the role. Earlier on this week, she named her cabinet
00:39of senior Labour members who will shape the backbone of the Welsh Government, bringing
00:43former FM hopeful Jeremy Miles back into the government as Health Minister and former First
00:48Minister Mark Drakeford as Finance Minister. She's put together an experienced outfit and
00:55will hope to hit the ground running over the next few weeks. The biggest issue facing
00:59Eluned Morgan is undoubtedly the NHS wasting list issue. It feels like every time there
01:04are new stats published, they're breaking new records for The Times, and the plan will
01:08be to try and buck that trend. Eluned Morgan has served as the Health Minister during much
01:14of the time while the NHS had suffered the historically long waiting times, and she will
01:18surely face questions over her ability to run the Senate and the country as a whole
01:23considering, under her leadership, that the NHS was clearly not doing well. She will have a very short
01:29lead over mistakes and problems coming to the fore over the next few months.
01:36Other issues, as Miss Morgan previously alluded to, will have to take a back seat to some extent,
01:41but all of those issues will be in part smoothed out if she can strike a new deal with the UK
01:45government, with two Labour governments in charge of the Senate and Westminster for the first time
01:50in over a decade. If she can use her influence to win over Keir Starmer and his government
01:55and pull in funds that many believe Wales are owed through things like HS2 funding,
02:00then things like the NHS, schools and rural issues can be given a cash injection. This
02:06is the crux of a lot of the problems facing Eluned Morgan over the next few months, and
02:09will need to be sorted quickly and smoothly.
02:14Topically there are also some other issues, for example the 20mph speed limit, for which
02:18a review has been promised by her predecessor Vaughan Geffing. So questions will surely
02:24remain for Morgan and whether she'll take a look at that as a priority, or whether the
02:28speed limits may be of a lower concern.
02:32Eluned Morgan went on a listening tour of Wales this summer, but Plaid Cymru has called
02:37the entire exercise a PR stunt, and wants to hear more ideas from the new First Minister.
02:42The Tories, Plaid and the sole Lib Dem member have all said that they want to see action
02:46taken quickly, especially in terms of the NHS, in order to avoid a catastrophe.
02:52The next few months will surely be a career-defining time for Eluned Morgan.