Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan is facing accusations of hypocrisy after voting alongside Reform UK in the Senedd, just hours after attacking Labour colleagues for doing the exact same thing in a separate vote earlier that day.
The awkward situation unfolded during Senedd proceedings when Morgan criticised Labour members for backing a Reform UK position in one vote, only to then find herself doing precisely that in another. The contradiction did not go unnoticed, and opposition politicians were quick to pile on.
Morgan defended her decision, insisting the two situations were entirely different and that voting with Reform on one particular issue did not carry the same weight or meaning as the vote she had criticised Labour for. But that explanation has done little to silence critics who say the First Minister cannot have it both ways.
Reform UK has been a growing and disruptive presence in Welsh politics since making significant gains at the last general election. Their rise has created a tricky balancing act for all the main parties, who are keen to avoid being seen as legitimising the party while also needing to navigate day to day Senedd business where votes do not always fall along neat ideological lines.
The Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru both seized on the moment, pointing out that Morgan had handed Reform a gift by appearing to apply one rule to others and a different rule to herself. It is the kind of story that tends to stick, particularly when a leader has been so vocal about the risks of normalising far right politics.
For Morgan, the timing could hardly have been worse. Welsh Labour has spent considerable energy in recent months trying to draw a clear dividing line between itself and Reform, positioning the party as the only credible barrier to right wing populism in Wales. That message becomes a lot harder to sell when the First Minister is caught doing the very thing she condemned others for within the same sitting day.
Supporters of Morgan argue the criticism is overblown and that politicians across all parties will occasionally find themselves on the same side of a vote as parties they fundamentally disagree with. That is simply how legislatures work, they say, and pretending otherwise would mean never passing anything. The issue, though, is not really about the mechanics of voting. It is about the optics and the fact that Morgan chose to make it a political issue herself by criticising Labour members first.
Wales has seen heated debate around how mainstream parties should respond to Reform’s presence in the Senedd. Some argue that treating them like any other party and engaging with their votes on a case by case basis is the only practical approach. Others believe that any cooperation, even incidental, gives Reform a credibility boost they should not be handed.
Morgan will be hoping the story fades quickly, but in a Senedd where every move is being watched closely and where Reform are actively looking for moments to claim they are being treated unfairly or inconsistently, this kind of slip is unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry.
The First Minister’s office has not yet issued a detailed statement beyond her initial defence during the Senedd session itself.