One Wales - History

History

On 3 May 2007, Labour won 26 of 60 seats in the 2007 National Assembly for Wales election, four short of an effective majority of 30 (see Speaker Denison's rule for an explanation of why this is so.) Originally, commentators had predicted a Labour-Welsh Liberal Democrats coalition, after a previous coalition which had lasted from 2000 until 2003. Liberal Democrat leader Mike German, who had served as Deputy First Minister of Wales in the previous coalition, favoured the deal, which would have given the Government a majority of four. However, concerns within his party about propping up a weakened Labour party prevented such an agreement. An alternative option, the so-called "rainbow coalition" of Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives, was negotiated between the leaders of those parties in mid-May, but was shot down at a Liberal Democrat special conference vote on 23 May. The new Assembly formally opened two days later with no clear majority, and Rhodri Morgan was elected First Minister unopposed at the head of a minority government.

After one month of minority government, talks between Ieuan Wyn Jones and Rhodri Morgan resulted in the One Wales agreement between Labour and Plaid Cymru, which gives the Government a majority of twenty-two. The agreement was criticised by some members of the Labour Party as too conciliatory towards Plaid Cymru's nationalist leanings, especially in that it included a provision requiring a referendum on full law-making powers for the National Assembly for Wales, in line with the Scottish Parliament. The Labour party agreed to the plan, however, by a wide margin on 6 July. Plaid Cymru's membership approved the plan on 7 July. Negotiations on cabinet posts in the new government were scheduled to take place starting 9 July, but Morgan fell ill the night before. The next day, he had surgery to insert stents into on two partially blocked arteries. Morgan was released from the hospital a few days later, and negotiations concluded on 19 July. Three Plaid Cymru AMs are now serving as full ministers alongside six Labour members, with four deputy ministers from Labour and one from Plaid Cymru. The only Labour member to be struck from the government as a result of the deal was Deputy Economy and Transport Minister Huw Lewis, who had previously opposed the One Wales deal.

In March 2010 the One Wales government parties, Labour and Plaid Cymru AMs refused to cross the PCS union picket line. The First Minister Carwyn Jones claimed that it was in the Welsh Labour party's political thinking not to cross a picket line. The Welsh Conservative Party and the Welsh Liberal Democrats condemned the One Wales government for not attending Assembly business.