FM defends voting with Reform despite criticising Labour for doing same

The first minister has defended voting with Reform in the Senedd hours after criticising Labour for voting with it against the Welsh government's budget.

The minority Plaid Cymru Welsh government failed to pass their supplementary budget on Tuesday night and went on to criticise Labour for voting "with Reform against a progressive budget for Wales" in radio interviews and in social media clips.

But Plaid Cymru members backed a Reform motion on badger culling on Wednesday.

Rhun ap Iorwerth said "parties vote with each other or against each other in all sorts of different ways but you have to look at a budget in a different way - there's a significance to budget votes".

Asked whether it looked like it was one rule for the government and another for Labour, he said he didn't "draw any comparisons between those two particular issues".

He said Labour decided to vote down the supplementary budget "that was progressive by any measure - they have to explain why".

Talks between Plaid Cymru and Labour broke down after they failed to reach an agreement on funding for additional learning needs (ALN).

Labour called for £100m for the sector and rejected an offer of £40m a year over three years saying it was a "bad deal for education".

During the supplementary budget debate, Lynne Neagle, Labour's education spokesperson, said: "I have heard the heckles all afternoon from this government that we are voting with Reform.

"That is beneath you on an issue of this importance, and it's a sign that you cannot win the argument."

She added: "I want to be clear: we are not voting with Reform, we are not voting with the Welsh Conservatives; we are voting with children and young people with additional learning needs, and we are voting for the school staff who support them."

In a wide-ranging interview on BBC Politics Wales, ap Iorwerth also said a response from an official UK government spokesperson was "disgraceful" and "outrageous".

This week the Welsh government announced the establishment of a Shadow Broadcasting Authority for Wales as part of "first steps" towards devolving broadcasting.

An official spokesperson for The Department for Culture Media and Sport (CMS) issued a critical response to the Welsh government's ambitions in this area.

A spokesperson said: "In light of their failure to agree a budget this week, it would be advisable for the Welsh government to focus on better running the services they have, rather than wasting more taxpayers money by seeking to acquire new functions for them to further run into the ground."

Ap Iorwerth said it was "a pretty disgraceful statement" from a government official.

He said it was a "hugely politicised statement that is derogatory towards Wales, that is derogatory towards devolution, that is disrespectful to the government of Wales".

"And if they're talking about running services into the ground, presumably referring to the services that were run into the ground by the Labour governments of the last 27 years," he added.

Referring to Andy Burnham, he said: "We're looking forward now to a new UK prime minister coming into the role who says he wants to work positively with this Welsh government.

"I can't imagine that he would be too pleased reading that kind of statement, of the kind I have rarely heard, if ever, from a government official."

Shav Taj, Labour MS for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf, told BBC Politics Wales she was "really disappointed in the way that they [Plaid] approached those discussions and the engagement".

"We asked for one thing, and that was for financial support for additional learning needs. Nothing more than that," she added.

Jason O'Connell, Reform's MS for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, said Plaid "don't appear to have learned any lessons and they certainly took Labour for granted, I think during this process".

He said they "assumed they would come with them but obviously they didn't even reach out to Reform to see where we were".

Peter Fox, the Welsh Conservatives' MS for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, said, as new first minister, ap Iorwerth, would "need to invest time in building relationships, early doors".

"You don't burn your bridges straight away," he said.

"It was naïve to bring that debate, supplementary budget, to the table when he knew he was likely to lose."