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Andy Burnham urges Welsh Labour to listen after historic Senedd election defeat

Andy Burnham urges Welsh Labour to listen after historic Senedd election defeat

The prime minister will pledge to "do things differently" at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday.

The prime minister has told members of his party that Welsh Labour may have lost sight of some of the principles of devolution before it was thrown out of power in a historic election defeat.

On Saturday morning Andy Burnham addressed the first Welsh Labour conference since May's Senedd election.

He suggested the previous Labour government did not do enough to pass powers down to communities, and said it was "hard" to accept the party was no longer in power after 27 years of running the Welsh government.

He spoke before a review into what went wrong concluded that former First Minister Eluned Morgan's political strategy of calling out Westminster played a role in the party losing power.

The report by Prof Anand Menon, of PF Global, said Morgan's calls for constitutional change like the devolution of policing and the Crown Estate did not get through to voters.

A source close to the former first minister said it was "ludicrous" to suggest that Morgan was focused on constitutional issues.

Meanwhile, Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates has criticised his party for focusing too much on powers for the Senedd.

In a subdued speech, Burnham said he wanted to see "one Labour team" where "everyone" was "signed up and on the same page."

In brief

The prime minister has told members of his party that Welsh Labour may have lost sight of some of the principles of devolution before it was thrown out of power in a historic election defeat. On Saturday morning Andy Burnham addressed the first Welsh Labour conference since May's Senedd election. Meanwhile, Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates has criticised his party for focusing too much on powers for the Senedd.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to BBC News — Top Stories. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at BBC News — Top Stories ↗

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