First Minister warns voters of “a risk” as Welsh Labour launches North Wales Senedd campaign in Deeside
Welsh Labour launched its North Wales Senedd election campaign at Boccard’s manufacturing site in Deeside on Thursday, with First Minister Eluned Morgan setting out the party’s economic and health offer for the region.
The event was opened by Ken Skates MS, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, before Morgan addressed an audience at the Deeside facility.
Morgan pointed to a cluster of investments she said had already been secured for north Wales, including a £2.5 billion commitment to the UK’s first Small Modular Reactor at Wylfa, supporting around 3,000 jobs, and an AI Growth Zone across the Menai Strait projected to create a further 3,000 jobs.
On health, she committed to rebuilding Wrexham Maelor Hospital through what Welsh Labour describes as a £4 billion Hospitals of the Future Fund, and announced a dedicated North Wales Surgical Centre in Llandudno.
Speaking to Wrexham.com after the event, Morgan was direct about the position of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which covers all of north Wales including Flintshire.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s still a long way to go with Betsi,” she said.
“They still have a long way to go. But what we’ve done is we’ve said we can’t wait any longer — we’ve actually sent Welsh Government officials in there to book people in for their operations, because it wasn’t happening. So we’ve had to step in to help them out.”
Asked whether that level of intervention amounted to a further deepening of special measures, Morgan said it did.
“Yes, really, because it wasn’t moving fast enough. It wasn’t lack of money. It was a lack of discipline of getting things done, of inviting people in for their operations, making sure things happen. Now, we’ve literally got our people in there doing it. But it’s the local people who need to learn this is how you do it and sort it out.”
She said the average waiting time at BCUHB was now approximately 19 weeks.
Morgan defended the timing of the new Wrexham hospital commitment, saying the funding had not been available until now.
“The reason we couldn’t do it before is because we didn’t have the money. We’ve been starved of capital investment. Now the taps have been switched back on again. So that’s why we can do it.”
Asked about the risk of voters switching to other parties, she said: “I think they’ll realise there’s a really big risk. You can take a risk on others, but my God, it’ll be a risk. The things that are there this day may not be there for them tomorrow.”
On the question of whether BCUHB was too large, Morgan said she had considered the structure when placing the health board into special measures and decided against restructuring.
“My real interest was in making sure we got as many people sorted as fast as we can. If you start restructuring, the one thing you can be sure of is that all those managers that are supposed to be sorting it out will be focusing on restructuring. I didn’t want that.”
The Senedd election takes place on 7 May 2026.
Other parties are contesting the election across north Wales.
The full interview with the First Minister is available on Wrexham.com.
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