Labour must show Cardiff credentials, says incoming shadow Welsh secretary

Party's rising star Owen Smith says Labour-led government in Wales is championing progressive policies to revive economy
Owen Smith
Owen Smith, who is replacing Peter Hain as shadow Welsh secretary. Photograph: John Stilwell/PA

The new shadow Welsh secretary has said it is "crucial" for his party that the Labour-led government in Cardiff shows the whole of the UK what a future Labour administration in Westminster could do.

Owen Smith, who replaces Peter Hain, claimed the Labour government in Wales was championing progressive policies designed to create more jobs and business and protect the health service.

Smith, regarded as a rising star of Labour, accepted it was important for the national party's chances of regaining power that such policies succeeded and were seen to succeed.

"It's crucial, not least because Wales has been such a huge part of the Labour movement," he said.

Speaking on the steps of the Welsh assembly building, the Senedd, after a meeting with the Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, Smith said he believed the Tory-led coalition at Westminster was "less mindful" of the need to maintain the unity of the United Kingdom.

He said: "My worry is they feel sometimes there is political gain in splitting off progressive voting bits of the UK from England. I am a believer in devolution, in passing down power to communities but I think Wales is a fundamental part of the UK."

Smith, the MP for Pontypridd and a former BBC journalist, highlighted Welsh government economic policies such as the Jobs Growth Wales scheme, designed to provide jobs for unemployed young people, as an example of the sort of project the Welsh government had introduced to try to help its citizens through the economic crisis.

On health, he claimed the coalition was effectively "scrapping" the NHS.

"There is criticism in the level of funding to the health service in Wales but the reality is in England they are scrapping the NHS, denationalising the NHS. In Wales, we have turned our face against that. We are maintaining a publicly owned and publicly delivered NHS."

Hain, the Neath MP, has stepped down from the Labour front bench to concentrate on promoting a scheme to build an energy-generating barrage across the Severn estuary.