Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan: English tourists must respect our language (2024)

Gwyneth Rees

There is a story the new First Minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, tells of her childhood in the Seventies. She grew up in a vicarage in a suburb of Ely in Cardiff, at the time home to one of the largest council estates in Europe. But as her father, the Rev Bob Morgan, was also involved in local politics, her home doubled up as the Labour Party headquarters and was flooded with Welsh Labour royalty.

Regular visitors included the former prime minister James Callaghan, plus twopast first ministers Rhodri Morgan and Mark Drakeford, Neil and Glenys Kinnock, former Welsh secretary Alun Michael, and MP Julie Morgan.

I remember the local MP and speaker of the House of Commons, George Thomas, coming to our church hall when I was around seven,” she recalls.

“My dad called me over and said, ‘Tell George what you want to do when you grow up,’ and I said an MP.

“They thought it was hilarious. That was the age, the idea of a woman being an MP. They all laughed. They’re not laughing any more.”

Morgan is then, “very proud” to be the first female First Minister, especially as the party has so far failed to appoint a female leader in England. Two months on since she was appointed, we are meeting in the Senedd – the seat of power in Wales, all slate and glass – with panoramic views over Cardiff Bay.

I’m waiting in thecaféarea as the First Minister sweeps towards me – white mac, high red boots, bright lipstick – and greets me with a broad Cardiff accent, saying “Want a coffee?” She starts fishing around in her bag for her credit card, but I’m thrown. She’s the First Minister of Wales. Does she really buy her own coffee?“Well, yes–” and she gives a throaty chuckle.“Got to now… (a raise of the eyebrows). I’ll get you one. But I’ll have to put it in the book.”

Morgan is already a colourful change from what’s come before, the men in “grey suits” as she has called them. Outspoken and sweary, she is known for calling out health board bosses for not delivering on their targets (a text from the Covid inquiry read: “We’re all f---ed!!”). She was also banned from driving for six months in March 2022 following repeated speeding fines.

First-language Welsh and Christian, she lives in Pembrokeshire’s St Davids with her husband, Rhys Jenkins, a priest and now retired GP, plus their two children in their twenties who have “boomeranged” back home. Her mother, Elaine Morgan, a former Labour councillor, now has Alzheimer’s and so Morgan, who sees her one day a week, deliberated over whether to take the job. She then relented, saying, “I’m keen to play my part at least for a day a week, though it effectively means I don’t get a day off. But I wouldn’t change it because it’s what I want to do. Everybody’s got [things] they have to juggle in life, we’re all challenged.”

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan: English tourists must respect our language (1)

She has inherited Wales at a difficult time. From 2018 to 2024, Mark Drakeford (who used to be a youth worker at her former church) was in charge, steering the nation through Covid. Then, in calamitous scenes, Vaughan Gething was appointed in March, only to resign three months later after taking a £200,000 campaign donation from a businessman convicted of environmental offences. The Welsh Labour Party, now in charge for 25 years, descended into infighting and Morgan, then cabinet secretary for health, was appointed uncontested on a ticket to “unite”.

Wales has also suffered terrible PR over its woeful hospital waiting times (there are currently over 600,000 people waiting for treatment, while numbers of those waiting more than a year for treatment have increased), plus its blanket 20mph speed limit in urban areas.

Morgan insists her new government has “listened to the people” and will get this last issue at least sorted, meaning that speed limits will rise again in some places, such as bypasses, link roads and those without shops and schools.

“We are giving much more flexibility to the councils. I think they had some of it already but some of them didn’t actually make use of the flexibility they had. In some of those built-up areas, there are through roads and people say ‘this is crazy’. They need to listen to that. There will be changes.”

Is it cop out, blaming the councils? I ask.

“No, it was always part of the deal.”

There’s also been contention over tourist taxes on second homes, and the seeming rise in Welsh nationalism which is putting some English off visiting west of Offa’s Dyke.

On this she’s defiant. “Wales is very much open to tourists, especially from England, our biggest market.

“We are a welcoming nation. [But] should they respect we have a different language? Absolutely. In the same way you do when you go to France or Spain.”

Unashamedly positive about Wales, Morgan is a one-woman PR team, fizzing with joy that Labour are in charge in England. She says that she hated dealing with the Tories when she was in charge of health (“They didn’t answer the phone in two years”).

Morgan has already met Sir Keir Starmer, while Wes Streeting is hoping to visit soon to see the good parts of the Welsh NHS. She is on the same page as Starmer in the focus on “economic growth” and says she will drive forward private investment in the nation, though there is no money for capital projects such as fixing the M4 tailbacks.

So, how is Starmer doing, I ask. “Well,” she says. “He’s given public sector pay rises, which means we could do it in Wales, so already what he’s doing in England is benefiting us here.”

And what about wardrobegate? She knows Lord Alli from her time in the House of Lords, though they are not close friends. Would she have accepted £30,000 of free clothes?

“Look,” she concedes. “It has been difficult for the party. We shouldn’t shy away from that. Lesson learnt.”

And what of the winter fuel cut to pensioners? Surely, she would never have done this. But all she will say on the topic is: “Keir Starmer made that decision. And I’m not going to comment every single time they make a decision in Westminster.”

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan: English tourists must respect our language (2)

She is, then, an experienced politician, but it’s unsurprising given her roots. The second of four children (she has three brothers), their father attended to people’s “needs and troubles at all hours, day and night”.

And so fuelled by a sense of social injustice, both her parents got into politics, with her father rising up Labour ranks to become leader of South Glamorgan County Council in 1981.

Between church discos and youth clubs,the young Morgan spent weekends handing out Labour Party leaflets, while weekdays were reserved for school, which was taught entirely in the Welsh language. At the time, this was rare (there was only one Welsh-speaking primary school in Cardiff; there are now 15) and many of the local children in Ely didn’t approve of it. “Kids used to lie in the middle of the street and throw stones at the [school] bus. People just hated the Welsh language,” she says.

Bright and ambitious, she then won a sixth-form scholarship to attend the prestigious Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, famed for educating European royals. She refuses to criticise Starmer’s tax raid on private schools (“If it directs more support to state schools, I don’t have a problem with it”) but admits that she “absolutely loved it” there and that it helped form all her thinking and sparked a deep love affair with Europe.

Morgan went on to a degree in European Studies at Hull University and had a stint as a TV researcher for the Welsh language channel, S4C, and the BBC. Then, at 27, she became the youngest member of the European Parliament. Quickly becoming fluent in French and Spanish (“I absorbed them in pubs”), she worked in Brussels and Strasbourg, choosing to sit on male-dominated committees, chiefly budgetary control, energy, industry and science. She experienced no sexism and in fact insists being a woman helped her. “I’ve ticked a lot of boxes. It’s actually helped me. But then you have to prove yourself in that role.”

A nomination to the House of Lords followed (she was appointed in 2011 by Ed Miliband and is now Baroness Morgan of Ely). Neil Kinnock warned her not to accept it, as he said the House of Lords was full of fuddy-duddies. She did anyway, enjoying the fact, as she puts it, that no one was cut-throat as they had all “been there, done it”.

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Buthiraeth(the yearning for Wales) was clearly calling. In 2016 she was elected to the Senedd, and given the health brief five years later. She is aware that Wales has a relatively poor reputation on health, though insists the situation is not as bad as some commentators make out.

From next year, for instance, Wales is increasing its health budget by 4 per cent (in England it’s 1 per cent). Wales has more GPs per head of the population (England has 44 GPs per 100,000 patients, Wales 47), and in 2022 banned surgeries from only releasing appointments at 8am, instead insisting slots are released throughout the day. Optometrists and pharmacists have far more powers to treat people than in England. “Sixty per cent of those who live on the border with England are registered [at a GP surgery] in Wales. I think that tells you there is better service,” she adds.

But – and it’s a big but – under her three years in charge of health, from May 2021 to July 2024, the overall numbers for those waiting for treatment rose 31 per cent. And waiting times are still at a record high.

To help tackle this, she has signed up to Labour’s cross-border health plan for England and Wales, which will allow patients to access treatment and specialisms in each other’s countries. She says: “There is cross-border support already, so patients from England come to Wales for our plastic surgery and cleft palate expertise. There are [also] pockets of England that are doing better than others in terms of bringing waiting lists down so we can learn from those. If there were capacity in England, I wouldn’t mind a conversation about how we could use up some of that capacity.” She’s happy to admit that she is fine with using private facilities if they bring down waiting lists, though she has “no plans” to go private herself.

But Morgan is also sounding alarm bells over NHS finances and the ability of the Welsh NHS to cope with an ageing and increasingly unhealthy population. “Look at how much we spend on health proportionally to Germany” – where public healthcare spending is around 55 per cent more per capita than in the UK. She recently warned that 60 per cent of adults in her country are obese or overweight, costing the Welsh NHS an estimated £86 million a year. By 2050, this is estimated to rise to £465 million. “We all have to take responsibility because if we don’t then it will be difficult for us to sustain services.”

Next year, the Welsh government will bring in new restrictions on unhealthy foods that will see limits on multibuy offers and promotions of high-sugar foods, such as yogurts and cereals. Is she worried about nanny state accusations? “Well, the Tories in England have already brought in this law, so we are not going further than them.”

But health is not the only area Morgan needs to tackle. In education, Wales has the worst Pisa scores (scaledmeasurements of the skills of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science)of all UK nations, while numbers going to university are falling.

It’s easy to find dissenting voices in Wales. Some blame the government’s focus on the Welsh language on everything from the state of education, to the low GDP per capita, to the seeming rise in nationalism, especially in the north. It’s unsurprising given the government’s push for one million Welsh speakers by 2050 and the fact that some jobs require it.

But while Morgan does concede her country could be better (“I always wish Wales could be better. It’s my mission to make Wales better”) she is resolute that devolution has been a success. “It has been a massive confidence boost. It has transformed the energy and nation building of the people.”

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan: English tourists must respect our language (4)

With that, the interview is over, and we head outside into the bright sun. A choir has assembled on the steps of the Senedd but there’s palpable disappointment from both the crowd and First Minister when it turns out they’re from England.

Still, she listens, then in between songs introduces herself and cries out: “Well done,da iawn.You can give our lot a run for their money any day.”

She has such easy charm and swagger and the photographer, who arrives late and stressed, is immediately smitten. He apologises for holding her up, blaming flooding in Berkshire.

“Don’t worry,” she reassures him. “It’s all good. No problem. Bloody English weather.”

Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan: English tourists must respect our language (2024)

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