00:00A number of Welsh Labour backbenchers as well as ministers have criticised the UK government
00:05over cuts to benefits as well as increases in national insurance contributions. Mark
00:10Drakeford has joined the growing list of Welsh Labour politicians to call out their UK counterparts
00:15over recent decisions, adding to cross-border tensions inside the Labour Party.
00:20The benefit cuts have been the biggest stories for the last week, but national insurance
00:24increases have been looming for some time and came into effect in April. There's some
00:28complicated maths involving the Barnett formula, which is how funding between England and Wales
00:33is figured out, which has meant that Wales will receive £65m less than we should because
00:38we have a proportionally higher public sector workforce in Wales.
00:43Welsh Finance Minister Mark Drakeford has said the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves was wrong
00:47to do it this way and we should have been compensated for the actual costs, not the
00:51Barnett share of costs in England.
00:53Given Wales has been politically dominated by Labour for over a century now, there was
00:58some hope that with a Labour government in Wales and in Westminster, there would be a
01:02chance for collaboration and easy communication between the governments. But, as of now, it's
01:07been anything but.
01:08First Minister Eluned Morgan has said in the past that there are things that her party
01:12and the Westminster arm agree on and there are some things they don't, but has insisted
01:15she is in close communication with UK counterparts.
01:21Alan Michael, an often outspoken Welsh Labour Senedd member, has said he believes recent
01:25PIP cuts are a mistake and wants to see Wales protected from the damaging costs of these
01:29decisions.
01:31Senedd elections are only a year away now and the way it's going, Welsh Labour will
01:35need to fix these problems or find a more pragmatic solution if they want to keep their
01:39century-long hold of Welsh politics.
01:41James D. Watkins, reporting for Local TV.
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