Labour ‘talking to other parties’

Carwyn Jones is expected to be re-instated as first minister this week

Labour has confirmed it has spoken to other parties in Wales after falling just short of an outright majority at last week’s assembly election.

It said “informal discussions” were underway after it won exactly half the seats in the assembly chamber.

Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones is expected to be confirmed as first minister by the end of the week.

But one Labour AM said his party should go it alone, warning a coalition with another party would be “too cosy”.

The Plaid Cymru and Conservative groups held their first meetings after the election on Monday in Cardiff Bay. Labour will hold a group meeting on Tuesday.

The first plenary session of the new assembly is expected to be held on Wednesday when the presiding officer and first minister will be chosen.

In a statement on Monday, a Labour spokesman said: “The people of Wales have made it very clear that they want a Labour-led government and they want Carwyn Jones to be the next first minister.

“This is accepted by the other political parties in the assembly.

“Informal discussions have been taking place today and over the weekend both inside Welsh Labour and with the other political parties.

“The new Labour group will meet tomorrow to discuss options and agree the right way forward for Wales. Following that meeting, Carwyn Jones will make a statement to ensure Wales has a stable government.”

But the new Labour AM for Pontypridd, Mick Antoniw, said he opposed going into coalition “and I think we should just go it alone”.

“I think it’s feasible, it might be tough, but then I don’t think people have elected us to have a cosy time,” he said.

“I think really there’s an obligation on Labour to form a government. You’ve got 50% of the seats.

“My bigger concern is that the trouble within the assembly with coalition is that it makes it a bit too cosy and takes away the quality of scrutiny and challenge to what the government is doing.”

Labour could share power with another party, as it did with Plaid after the 2007 election, or could work out a less formal arrangement.

Labour’s campaign manager, Pontypridd MP Owen Smith, said a partnership with the Lib Dems would be “difficult”, unless they renounced the policies of their coalition with the Conservatives.

But Lib Dem AM Peter Black said his party “would want some reassurance from the Labour Party if they were going to talk to us then we wouldn’t want this strident criticism (of the UK government) all the way through”.

He said the Welsh Lib Dems were willing to criticise the UK government where they disagreed with it, for example over university tuition fees and on S4C.

“But I think we can’t just oppose everything for the sake of opposing it.”

He added: “I think the onus is on Labour.

“We are not going to go to them. If they want to come and talk to us because they can’t manage in government on 30 seats then we are happy to talk and listen to that.

“All the balls are in their court and as far as we are concerned we will let them decide how they want to go ahead.”

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