![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/First-Minister-Eluned-Morgan-MS-4-cropped_cropped.jpg\")
First Minister Eluned Morgan<\/p>\n First Minister Eluned Morgan<\/p>\n
The First Minister has been accused of ushering in the break-up of the UK by demanding more devolved powers for her government.<\/p>\n
Darren Millar, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said Baroness Eluned Morgan was \u201cbuilding the scaffolding\u201d for independence by seeking the devolution of policing, rail, youth justice and the Crown Estate.<\/p>\n
In a speech at the Institute for Government last week, Lady Morgan called for a \u201cnew chapter for devolution\u201d and said the Welsh Government should be given fairer funding and stronger powers.<\/p>\n
Mr Millar said: \u201cYou have claimed that demanding more powers from the UK Government is a way to neutralise the threat of the break-up of the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in reality\u2026 by constantly demanding more powers and more control over issues such as policing and justice you\u2019re actually building the scaffolding for the very break-up of the United Kingdom that you claim to want to defend.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of trying to out-nationalist the nationalists by clamouring for more powers, why don\u2019t you focus on the powers you already have to turn around the crisis in our NHS, to improve our education system and to get Wales\u2019 economy working.\u201d<\/p>\n
The First Minister said: \u201cLabour is the party of devolution, Plaid (Cymru) is the party of independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the difference, it\u2019s a fundamental difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make this place work, we want to make it work, a strong Wales in a strong United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will have a choice in the next election, they will have to choose between whether they want chaos under Reform\u2026 Or you can vote for that route towards independence, and that is something that is on offer and that is a difficult choice that the people of Wales will need to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are unapologetically focussed on the things that matter to the people of Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has previously said his party would use time in government to make the case for Welsh independence.<\/p>\n
The First Minister\u2019s speech at the Institute for Government also drew criticism from Mr ap Iorwerth, who accused her of being \u201cpowerless\u201d over UK Government ministers.<\/p>\n
He highlighted that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Monday she did not believe this is the \u201cright time\u201d for the devolution of policing to Wales.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s so clear that Labour MPs and Keir Starmer have no interest in what\u2019s right for Wales.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd do you know what, the more the people of Wales look, the more it sinks in that Labour is a party run from London with no regard for Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n the people of Wales.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Minister Eluned Morgan The First Minister has been accused of ushering in the break-up of the UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-393461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}