The frontrunner to become the next Welsh first minister is describing himself as a “21st-century socialist” and making clear his solidarity with the UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Mark Drakeford, who is launching his campaign on Monday to become leader of Labour in Wales, also says the party is still reeling from the death of Carl Sargeant, who killed himself after being sacked as a minister amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour to women.

Drakeford is on the centre left of the Welsh Labour party. At the time, he was the only member of the Welsh cabinet that voted for Corbyn in his first leadership bid in 2015.

The current Welsh Labour leader and first minister, Carwyn Jones, who is stepping down following a torrid time since Sargeant’s death, has been more lukewarm about Corbyn and has always emphasised that Welsh Labour is a different beast to the UK party.

Drakeford says he has never regretted backing Corbyn. “The reasons why I support Jeremy Corbyn, and the democratisation of our party lie in the political tradition to which I belong – the mainstream radical, Welsh socialist tradition.

“If I am first minister, I want to lead a Wales where government invests in the conditions in which wealth is created – investing in people and in places. But for me that is common wealth, the wealth to which everyone makes a contribution and from which the fruits are then shared out fairly for all.”

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Drakeford used to work as special adviser for the former first minister Rhodri Morgan, one of the most charismatic of Welsh politicians in recent years, who famously advocated “clear red water” between Welsh Labour and the UK party – then led by Tony Blair. Drakeford appears to be signalling that this divide is no longer needed.

He says he has learned a lot from his time with Morgan. “It provided me with a unique insight into what it takes to be a first minister, the pressures which that office brings, and the possibilities it opens. Being first minister is unlike any other job in government and I know from the inside.

“Since becoming an assembly member myself in 2011 I have been Labour’s health minister and today, am the minister for both finance and Brexit. Whoever is the next first minister will face the pressures caused by the longest and deepest period of austerity we have ever known. She or he will also take up office just at the point when the Brexit negotiations finally come to a head.

“Labour’s next first minister will have to be able to grapple with those enormous challenges from the moment of election – there will be no time to learn on the job.”

Drakeford will also speak about the “distressing and draining” time members of the Labour group at the assembly have faced since Sargeant’s death.

The current first minister has come in for fierce criticism over his handling of Sargeant’s sacking and faces an inquiry over it.

Drakeford is to say: “The next Labour leader will need to reunite [the] group and to rally its undoubted energies and huge commitment to the vital tasks of the remainder of this term, and to the election that will follow.”











