ELUNED MORGAN, Wales’s First Minister, announced the members of her new Cabinet on Wednesday, September 11.
Jeremy Miles returns as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care while the remainder of the existing deck is shuffled.
Mr Miles was one of four cabinet members who quit his post in the summer to force Vaughan Gething to resign.
Julie James, who had left her job as housing secretary, will also return to government to become counsel general.
But two of the four – Lesley Griffiths and Mick Antoniw are absent from the Cabinet.
Baroness Morgan’s Cabinet is very similar in shape, alignment and composition to previous Welsh government cabinets. Its members show no sign of change or new thinking.
In fact, Mark Drakeford’s return as Cabinet Secretary for Finance will wind the clock back eight years to the post he held between 2016 and 2018 under Carwyn Jones.
For those looking for Kremlin-style manoeuvring, it is notable that Mr Miles and Mr Drakeford’s appointments suggest points of difference with Labour’s Westminster leadership and the majority of the Party’s cannon-fodder MPs in the House of Commons. Both Mr Drakeford and, to a lesser extent, Mr Miles are on the left of the Labour Party. That is particularly true when they are compared to Labour’s leadership in the House of Commons.
Mr Miles’s acceptance of the poisoned chalice of the Health brief is significant in its own right.
The last three Labour leaders in Wales have all served as Health Ministers with what can (very generously) be described as varying levels of success. In addition, Mr Miles’s predecessors have had a comparatively easy ride in the role, having been able to rail against the Conservative Government in Westminster for the failings of a health service that’s been under Labour control in Wales for over a quarter of a century. Mr Miles faces the task of standing up for Welsh interests over health against a Labour government at the other end of the M4 that has already signalled its intent to reshape the English NHS to save money and cut funding for other public services, potentially impacting social care.
Plaid Cymru quickly latched on to the continuity element of Baroness Morgan’s announcement, claiming it showed Labour in Wales lacked ambition and ideas.
Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said: “After a summer of silence and empty PR exercises, the First Minister has decided – with a week to go until the Senedd returns from recess, to put her Cabinet together.
“In the meantime, the legacy of successive Labour governments in Wales continues: our NHS is in a state, the economy is stagnating, and education standards are falling.
“This is the third Welsh Government cabinet this year after months of internal Labour party chaos.
“Wales deserves better than this tired and divided Labour government that delivers nothing but delay and distractions.”
Andrew RT Davies MS, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said: “While there may be a new First Minister, it’s still the same old Labour.
“We know that this Labour Welsh Government will continue to fail in the key areas that matter to Wales while they focus time and energy on pointless pet projects.
“The Welsh Conservatives are the true alternative to Labour’s politics of distractions, and only with a Welsh Conservative Government will things finally change for the better.”
The Cabinet is:
Eluned Morgan – First Minister
Cabinet Secretaries
- Huw Irranca-Davies – Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
- Jeremy Miles – Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Mark Drakeford – Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language
- Rebecca Evans – Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
- Jayne Bryant – Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
- Lynne Neagle – Cabinet Secretary for Education
- Ken Skates – Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
- Jane Hutt – Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
Ministers
- Jack Sargeant – Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership
- Vikki Howells – Minister for Further and Higher Education
- Sarah Murphy – Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Dawn Bowden – Minister for Children and Social Care
- Julie James – Counsel General Designate and Minister for Delivery
