A revealing hour and a halfpublished at 22:01 BST
22:01 BST
David Deans
Wales politics reporter
Eluned Morgan was keen to burnish Welsh Labour’s achievements as they see them – better trains, free prescriptions and a bypass around Caernarfon.
But in saying that the north Wales health board Betsi Cadwaladr is “not a pretty sight” underlined a major problem for Labour in this part of the world – how can ministers argue that change is risky when they have been in charge for so long, and admit themselves services are not the best?
Dan Thomas attempted to head off the criticism that he is here to do Nigel Farage’s bidding – making the case that he is his own man and would be willing to stand up to the Reform UK leader who appointed him.
He tried to argue that he could find the cash to fix the NHS – that the money existed in the budget but was not being spent in the right places, or that the leadership wasn’t great. But he admitted he could not perform miracles to fix the health service overnight.
Meanwhile, Anthony Slaughter was forced to defend the party’s stance on nuclear energy to an audience question asking why the party would turn down the jobs offered by the plans for Wylfa, on Anglesey. He hammered the party’s priorities on rental controls – something perhaps more aimed at the south Wales rather than the north.
His most engagement with his audience was on gender and transgender issues, when he said he wanted a youth gender service and that vulnerable people were being “turned into political footballs”.