Plaid accuses Labour of gaslighting on Welsh budget talks

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has accused the Welsh first minister of "gaslighting" his party over the potential for agreeing a budget deal.

On Tuesday in the Senedd First Minister Eluned Morgan said Plaid would be "held to account" if it did not support the budget, calling the politician "Rhun ap Negative".

Ap Iorwerth told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast Morgan had resorted "to throwing insults" at him and said Labour were not interested in an agreement.

Meanwhile Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds said negotiations with her were in "very early days".

Meanwhile the Welsh Conservatives told BBC Wales they would vote against the budget when it comes to the Senedd in March.

The Labour party holds half of the seats in Cardiff Bay and needs the support of at least one opposition member to abstain for their spending plans to become a reality.

That support has come in the past from either Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats - until the summer Plaid supported the Welsh government's budgets in the form of the co-operation deal.

But with elections looming in 2026, Plaid Cymru has sounded lukewarm to negative on the prospect of agreeing a new deal with Labour.

Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has not ruled it out, but has spelled out a list of changes he would like to see implemented by Labour in Westminster, including changes to how Wales is funded, cash from the High Speed 2 rail project and the Crown Estate.

It has also called for a new Wales Bill in the UK Parliament to bring the powers of the Welsh government and Senedd to the same level as Scotland.

In a press conference on Tuesday he said negotiations are not taking place, ahead of the budget vote in March.

When asked in late 2024 if Plaid was up for doing a budget deal, Finance spokesman Heledd Fychan said: "No. We want fair funding for Wales."

All the funding for Welsh government supported services, and most funding for councils, comes from the Welsh government budget.

Seeking to put pressure on her rivals, Labour's Eluned Morgan has said that Wales could lose the extra £1bn funding it is due from the UK government if a budget does not pass.

Such an event would plunge ministers into an unprecedented crisis, with the law governing the Welsh Parliament stipulating that the budget would be cut if MSs cannot agree.

In the Senedd on Tuesday Morgan told MSs: "Can I just be clear that what we've had is an opportunity to get the biggest uplift since the beginning of devolution for our budget, and he and his party are threatening not to support it.

"When it comes to presenting yourselves to the public and asking us to fix the NHS, you will be held to account for not giving the money that we want to help to deliver for Wales."

Later in the day, after ap Iorwerth said Morgan's statement on her priorities for 2025 was "weak", she said: "You know what they call him where I live? They call him 'Rhun ap Negative'."

She said it was important to remember "he walked away" from the co-operation agreement, before the presiding officer Elin Jones told her to "refrain from the personalisation".

Ap Iorwerth, speaking on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Wednesday, said it was an "extraordinary session in the Senedd".

"The first minister resorted to throwing insults at me.

"She can call me names as much as she likes. I will leave others to decide if that is conduct becoming of a first minister.

"This is clearly not a first minister serious about seeking a deal on its budget. They're not looking for an agreement."

"Let's be serious about this. Labour are governing, and they have to find a way of passing their budget, and they're clearly not looking for a deal with Plaid Cymru.

"They are gaslighting us and trying to pass on the blame to us for their own failures."

The Welsh government was asked to comment on his remarks.

Since late last year it has looked more likely that Labour would try to carve a deal with Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the party's only Member of the Senedd (MS).

Her abstention, or support, would be enough to get Labour's spending plans through.

She told the same programme that she had "one meeting" with Mark Drakeford, the finance secretary, and said "other party leaders have also had meetings".

She said her priorities are around "health services, social care, around child care and child poverty, and about more money going to local governments and local authorities."

But she said it was "very early days".

Asked if she was the most popular member of the Senedd at the moment, she added: "It's a very interesting place to be."

Drakeford has previously suggested he is flexible on the issue of providing more childcare. "If I can find a way between draft and final to find a bit more to help that to happen, I'd be very pleased to do that," he said last year.

A deal with the Conservatives has seemed unlikely, and on Wednesday Tories ruled it out.

The party told BBC Wales it would vote against the plans.

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar said: "If the Welsh Labour Government is unable to pass its budget, it will be because the first minister has the wrong priorities and has comprehensively failed to inspire any confidence that she has a strategy to fix Wales.

"The Welsh Conservatives will not be supporting Labour's budget, that isn't the role of the main opposition party. Our job is to present a credible, alternative plan to fix Wales ahead of the Senedd elections in 2026.

"We've always been clear that our priority is to remove this clapped out Welsh Labour Government, and we will work with anyone to secure that aim."

Neither Labour nor Plaid Cymru really sound like there is any chance of them doing a deal with each other on this budget.

The first minister's approach that there is an almost moral obligation for Plaid to support the budget has been described as gaslighting; Plaid's demands for movement on high-speed rail consequential funding is actually in the hands of the UK rather than Welsh government.

With the Senedd election looming next year it perhaps does neither party harm to have some distance between them in the eyes of voters.

With the Welsh Conservatives having formally ruled themselves out, it means the most likely deal could be struck with the sole Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds.

She sounded far more conciliatory on Wednesday morning and says that there is an onus on all politicians to try and work something out.

Conciliatory she might be, but it remains to be seen how hard a bargain Dodds might be tempted to drive behind the scenes, and what the Welsh government might give.