Wales' first minister hopes to 'jolt' Downing Street
Eluned Morgan says she hopes to "jolt" Downing Street into meeting her demands for Wales.
The first minister said she would meet Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday - two days after she called on him to rethink some benefit cuts.
BBC Wales was later told a formal meeting had not been scheduled, but both leaders were taking part in VE Day commemorations in London.
Morgan gave a speech on Tuesday that in which she promised to follow a "red Welsh way", even if that meant criticising the UK government.
Labour's Welsh government also wants increased funding and for Wales to see more financial benefits from wind power.
Asked on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast why the UK government had not agreed to her demands yet, the first minister said: "Let's see if this will jolt them into action.
"They've only been in power for less than a year. They inherited a terrible legacy from the Tories and they've been trying to stabilise the ship in the face of some massive international political headwinds.
"So I understand why we haven't got to the top of the list yet, but I'm saying 'we need you to focus on us, we need you to deliver for us because we've been hard done for'."
With a year to go until the Senedd election she said "we know we've got work to do".
"We know we've got to focus on delivery. That's what I'm doing," she added.
Morgan told the programme: "I'll be meeting Keir Starmer tomorrow [Thursday] in London just to start that discussion of how they are going to help us to turn this around."
However, a spokesperson for the first minister later clarified that no formal separate meeting has been scheduled.
Both leaders are due to attend a VE Day service at Westminster Abbey.
When voters go to the polls Labour will be defending a 27-year record of leading Wales' devolved government.
During that time it has been responsible for the NHS, which has seen waiting times rise to record highs in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
Waiting lists were coming down thanks to a "huge injection" of cash from the UK government, the first minister said.
Plaid Cymru on Tuesday accused Morgan of making a "floundering" attempt to reset her first ministership.
The Welsh Conservatives said it was a "last ditch, desperate attempt to save the Labour party's bacon".
Reform, which is hoping to win its first seats in the Senedd next year, said Labour was "more focused on slogans than solutions".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
World leaders call for deescalation after US bombs Iran
World capitals reacted to the surprise US attack on Iranian nuclear sites with a mix of calls for restraint and statements of condemnation. Trump had indicated on Friday he would make a decision in the next two weeks as to whether the US would bomb Iran in support of Israel, but the suddenness of the weekend strikes suggested that deadline was a red herring, with The Atlantic reporting that the president had already made up his mind last week. As the impact of the strikes was still being assessed Sunday, European and Gulf leaders appeared united in calls for diplomacy and restraint, while Iran's longtime allies, China and Russia, criticized the aerial assault as a gross escalation that could lead to further war. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose foreign minister met with Iran's top diplomat last week as part of European efforts to avert the strikes, in a post on X urged Iran 'to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.' The plea for diplomacy was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who in his own social media post Sunday called for restraint from Tehran and a return to 'dialogue,' as well as a commitment by Iran to renounce nuclear weapons. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Iran to 'immediately begin negotiations with the US and Israel' to find a diplomatic resolution. The German government believes 'significant parts' of Tehran's nuclear program were impacted in the strikes, but a precise assessment was not immediately possible. The European Union also echoed bloc leaders' calls for restraint, with the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas writing on social media that she urged 'all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation.' European Council President Antonio Costa said the bloc would work with allies to find a 'peaceful solution' to the conflict, and stressed the human toll of further possible attacks: 'Too many civilians will once again be the victims of a further escalation,' he said. United Nations chief António Guterres said in a statement that he was 'gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran,' adding that the strikes represented a 'dangerous escalation' for the region. 'There is no military solution. The only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace,' Guterres said, calling on UN members to deescalate the conflict. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday that it found no increase in off-site radiation levels after the strikes on the nuclear facilities, and that it would continue to monitor the situation. The UN Security Council was expected to meet later on Sunday to discuss the situation. China's foreign ministry said Sunday that Beijing 'strongly condemns' the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, accusing Washington of violating international law and escalating regional tensions. 'China calls on all parties to the conflict, especially Israel, to cease fire as soon as possible,' the ministry said in a statement, adding that Beijing was 'willing to work with the international community to uphold justice and restore peace and stability in the Middle East.' Russia's Foreign Ministry said Moscow 'strongly condemned' the strikes, echoing China's accusation that they represented 'a gross violation of international law, the U.N. Charter, and U.N. Security Council resolutions.' Senior Kremlin official and former president Dmitry Medvedev went further, suggesting Trump's decision to strike Iran had 'started a new war for the U.S.,' and that the Iranian regime would likely be strengthened by Washington's involvement. In a post on X, Medvedev, who is the deputy chair of Russian President Vladimir Putin's Security Council, indicated that a 'number of countries' could also decide to supply Tehran with nuclear weapons following the US strikes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US strikes, saying they were carried out 'in full coordination' with Israel. He said US President Donald Trump's leadership 'created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.' Netanyahu's main political opponents also praised the operation: Opposition party leader Yair Lapid dismissed critics of the strikes as 'useful idiots.' Saudi Arabia — a longtime rival of Iran's which has in recent months seen slightly improved ties with Tehran — voiced 'deep concern' over the targeting of the Iranian nuclear sites, and reiterated prior remarks which 'condemned and denounced the violation of the sovereignty' of Iran. It urged restraint and de-escalation. Qatar — the globe's third largest exporter of LNG — regretted the 'deterioration of the situation' in its 'sisterly' nation of Iran and called for an immediate cease in hostilities. However, a statement from its foreign ministry notably did not mention who conducted the attacks. Abu Dhabi said the strikes threatened to pull the region 'into deeper levels of instability' and stressed the need for immediate de-escalation. The foreign ministry called on members of the United Nations' Security Council to 'uphold their responsibilities' in response to the hostilities. Oman, which sits across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran and has hosted talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program, said it 'deplores' the US strikes, which it characterized as an 'illegal aggression,' adding that the attack contravened international agreements allowing Iran to develop a 'peaceful' nuclear program. The Kingdom of Bahrain called for negotiations to restart between the US and Iran, adding that a diplomatic approach 'is essential to restoring regional peace and security and to protecting the peoples of the region from the consequences of war,' according to the state news agency. The country, which is home to a US military base, urged civilian drivers to avoid main roads Sunday as a precaution: Tehran has previously indicated it would consider attacking regional US military bases if Washington decided to strike the country.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Who are the eight new vaccine advisers appointed by Robert F Kennedy?
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, named eight new vaccine advisers this week to a critical Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel after firing all 17 experts who had held the roles. New members of the panel include experts who complained about being sidelined, a high-profile figure who has spread misinformation and medical professionals who appear to have little vaccine expertise. Kennedy made the announcement on social media. 'All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense,' Kennedy said in his announcement. 'They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.' Formally called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the panel advises the CDC on how vaccines should be distributed. Those recommendations in effect determine the vaccines Americans can access. This week, Kennedy also removed the career officials typically tasked with vetting ACIP members and overseeing the advisory group, according to CBS News. Related: RFK Jr announces new panel of vaccine advisers after firing entire previous team Kennedy is a widely known vaccine skeptic who profited from suing vaccine manufacturers, has taken increasingly dramatic steps to upend US vaccine policy. 'ACIP is widely regarded as the international gold standard for vaccine decision-making,' said Helen Chu, one of the fired advisers, at a press conference with Patty Murray, a Democratic US senator. 'We cannot replace it with a process driven by one person's beliefs. In the absence of an independent, unbiased ACIP, we can no longer trust that safe and effective vaccines will be available to us and the people around us.' Arguably the most high-profile new member, Robert W Malone catapulted to stardom during the Covid-19 pandemic, appearing across rightwing media to criticize the Biden administration while describing himself as the inventor of mRNA technology. Messenger RNA technology powers the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines. While Malone was involved in very early experiments on the technology, researchers have said his role was limited. Malone's star rose quickly after appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast in 2022, where he and Rogan were criticized for spreading misinformation. On the show, Malone promoted the idea that both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine could be possible treatments for Covid-19, but said research on the drugs was being suppressed. Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have not been shown to improve outcomes from Covid-19. 'Malone has a well-documented history of promoting conspiracy theories,' said Dr Jeffrey D Klausner, an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of Southern California, who recently told the New York Times he was in touch with Kennedy about his appointments. Kulldorff is a former Harvard professor of biostatistics and an infectious disease epidemiologist originally from Sweden. He said in an essay for the rightwing publication City Journal that he was fired because he refused to be vaccinated in line with the school policy. Like Malone, he rose to prominence during the pandemic as a 'Covid contrarian' who criticized the scientific consensus – views he said alienated him from his peers in the scientific community. He voiced his opposition to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and, in his essay, complained of being ignored by media and shadow-banned from Twitter. Kulldorff co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for limited closures instead of pandemic lockdowns before vaccines were available. The document became a touchstone for the American political right. Before the pandemic, Kulldorff studied vaccine safety and infectious disease, including co-authoring papers with members of CDC staff, such as on the Vaccine Safety Datalink. He was a member of the CDC's Covid Vaccine Safety Working Group in 2020, but said later he was fired because he disagreed with the agency's decision to pause Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine and with Covid-19 vaccine mandates. He served on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug safety and risk management advisory committee around the same time. He has since enjoyed support from people already within the administration, including the Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr Jay Bhattacharya, current head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr Vinay Prasad, head of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which handles vaccines. Meissner is a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He previously held advisory roles at the FDA and CDC, including ACIP from 2008-2012. In 2021, Meissner co-wrote an editorial with Dr Marty Makary, now the head of the FDA, which criticized mask mandates for children. In April, he was listed as an external adviser to ACIP on the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) committee. Notably, Meissner is listed in a new conflicts of interest tool launched by the health department in March. Kennedy had criticized the fired ACIP members as 'plagued with persistent conflicts of interest'. 'He's a card-carrying infectious disease person who knows the burden of these diseases, and he knows the risk and the benefit,' Dr Kathryn Edwards told CBS News. Edwards previously served as chair of the FDA's vaccine advisory panel. Pebsworth is a nurse and the former consumer representative on the FDA's vaccine advisory committee. She is also the Pacific regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, according to Kennedy's announcement. In 2020, Pebsworth spoke at the public comment portion of an FDA advisory panel meeting on Covid-19 vaccines. There, she identified herself as the volunteer research director for the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), 'and the mother of a child injured by his 15-month well-baby shots in 1998'. The NVIC is widely viewed as an anti-vaccine advocacy organization 'whose founder Barbara Lou Fisher must be considered a key figure of the anti-vaccine movement', according to an article from 2023 on how to counter anti-vaccine misinformation. Levi is a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who Kennedy described as an 'expert in healthcare analytics, risk management and vaccine safety'. In 2021, he opposed Covid-19 booster shot approval during the public comment portion of an FDA advisory committee hearing. In 2022, he wrote an article calling for EMS calls to be incorporated into vaccine safety data, arguing that cardiovascular side-effects could be undercounted – an article that later required correction. The potential effects of Covid-19 vaccines on heart health have been a focal point of right-leaning criticism. Last month, Levi was criticized for publishing a pre-print paper – a paper without peer review – that he co-authored with Dr Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general, a vaccine skeptic. The paper alleged that people who took the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine were more likely to die than those who received the Moderna vaccine. Kennedy described Ross as 'a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University, with a career spanning clinical medicine, research, and public health policy'. However, as first reported by CBS News, Ross's name does not appear in faculty directories for either school. A spokesperson for George Washington University told the outlet that Ross did work as a clinical professor, but 'has not held a faculty appointment … since 2017'. A spokesperson for Virginia Commonwealth University described Ross as 'an affiliate faculty member' at a regional hospital system in the Capitol region. He is also listed as a partner at Havencrest Capital Management, as a board member of 'multiple private healthcare companies'. Hibbeln is a California-based psychiatrist who previously served as acting chief for the section of nutritional neurosciences at the NIH. He describes himself as an expert on omega-3, a fatty acid found in seafood. He also serves on the advisory council of a non-profit that advocates for Americans to eat more seafood. He practices at Barton Health, a hospital system in Lake Tahoe, California. His work influenced US public health guidelines on fish consumption during pregnancy. Pagano is an emergency medicine physician from Los Angeles 'with over 40 years of clinical experience', and a 'strong advocate for evidence-based medicine', according to Kennedy.
Wall Street Journal
4 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
European Leaders Urge Iran Not to Take Action That Would ‘Destabilize the Region'
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he spoke with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron after the U.S. strikes on Iran, and all three urged Tehran 'not to take any further action that could destabilize the region.' The three leaders also reiterated their commitment to peace and stability for all countries in the region and affirmed their support for the security of Israel.
