Wrexham’s Assembly Member Looks To Get Teeth Into New Portfolio

We recently caught up with the ‘new’ Assembly Member for Wrexham, Lesley Griffiths, to ask her about the election and her new Ministerial job…

Lesley popped into the Wrexham.com office a couple of weeks ago so we took the opportunity to ask her about the Assembly Elections, the unique circumstances after them and her new role as Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs. The portfolio encompasses a range of items, including those titled, but as varied as building regulations, energy policies and climate change.

How would you reflect on the past few months since being returned (again) as Assembly Member for Wrexham, and how was the campaign looking back?

“It was a hard campaign. On the doorstep it was much easier to engage with people about the Assembly now it has been in place for 17 years, people understood what the Assembly was, and what it has powers for. People differentiated between the UK Parliament and the Assembly much more than previously.”

“Having being the incumbent for 9 years I think people were not just saying ‘we see you just at election time’ as people recognised me, and have seen me a lot more and I have helped a lot more people, so there is that recognition about what I have done for Wrexham.

“It is a huge privilege to be elected to serve for a third term.”

What was the most common issue that was raised to you on the doorstep?

“The main issues were health, particularly around GP services.

“We have had a couple of GP practices where the GP’s have decided to retire, that has caused consternation amongst patients. I can think of one practice in Gwersyllt in particular where they have had fantastic service for 30 years and suddenly they are now unsure where they will get their services from.

“I am working very closely with the Health Board, and I am reassured that the Health Board are working closely with the surgery. At the end of the day GPs are self employed independent contractors, and it really is up to Betsi Cadwaladar University Health Board to make sure those services are there.”

The election was notable with the delays appointing a First Minister of Wales and therefore forming the Assembly. We asked Lesley for her thoughts on that period.

“It was an interesting two weeks. People expect to have an election on the Thursday and have a Government in place on the Friday, as that is how it has always been done. It has not been that easy for the last few elections both at UK level or Welsh Government.

“We had a very good result and we were very pleased with 29 seats, losing just one seat. Clearly we did not have a majority and that is what the people of Wales voted for, so we had to have discussions. There were discussions with Plaid Cymru and obviously the Liberal Democrats went down to one so there were discussions with Kirsty.

“We went in to Plenary where we thought we were able to nominate the First Minster, but of course Plaid Cymru put forward their leader, so we had a week of a hiatus where we did not have a Government.

“Looking back it was an interesting period, lots of negotiations and discussions between ourselves and other groups.

“We have now got Kirsty Williams, the sole Liberal Democrats Assembly Member, serving as member of the Government in the Education Department, we have an agreement with her obviously and we have an agreement with Plaid Cymru.”

Due to the changes forced by that process we enquired if this was a healthier political setup and way of working.

“Ultimately it is what the people of Wales wanted, and whilst there was criticism of us, people saying we showed an arrogance, I do not think there was. We were the biggest party, we immediately went into discussions around it. Plaid Cymru said they would not go into, coalition is a too strong a word, but they would not support UKIP or the Tories but unfortunately that is what it looked like to the people of Wales and I don’t think that went down very well, I think it backfired on them. Ultimately we now have a Government that reflects what the people voted for.”

Speaking of the last term when Labour had 30 seats and still in a minority Government then Lesley added, “In the last term I was constantly talking to other people and parties to make sure we got our legislation through, and I think that is really healthy and invariably when you hear another party’s point of view you do look at things afresh.”

Once the new Assembly was formed the announcements came thick and fast for the new Cabinet roles – which saw Ms Griffiths appointed Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs. With the new role we asked what she was most excited to get her teeth into…

“I think Energy is very exciting, previously the energy policy sat with two ministers. I am only now just starting to go on visits, this week I have visited two wind farms. I am a huge fan of renewable energy, and have had very interesting discussions about the Swansea tidal lagoon.

“Food and drink is another, which you would expect me to say. We have a fantastic story to tell, amazing Welsh produce and I have just attended the Royal Welsh Show. Wrexham itself is a real hub for food companies, it is really good to get around Wales.

“Agriculture is obviously really important, as without that we will not have food. It is really important I meet with farmers and understand the difficulties they face, obviously the decision to leave the European Union has a massive impact on my portfolio. It is probably the most affected portfolio in relation to European Union legislation, regulations and funding.

“I have 5,200 pieces of EU legislation that affects my agricultural and fisheries policies so my officials are having to unpick those. There is lots of legislation we would want to continue with, and my message is we have not been dragged kicking and screaming to sign this legislation we have done it because it is in the interests of the people of Wales.

“When we now have the opportunity to get very Welsh-specific legislation we can work to strengthen some areas that we want to. There is lots of opportunity to embrace.

Following the UK’s decision on June 23rd to leave the EU, we asked Lesley when we are ‘Brexiting’… 

“There is a huge amount of planning going on as we do not know when the UK Government will invoke Article 50 which will kick off the exit, which will probably take two years.

“Whilst that is going on in London, my message to officials and certainly the First Minister’s message to the organisation as a whole as it is obviously not just my portfolio, is that planning needs to be ongoing. The First Minister has set up a team in Brussels, in London and in Cardiff to do the negotiations for us.

“The First Minster has met with the Prime Minister and has made it very clear we need to be around that negotiation table. Going back to food and drink from a trade point of view 90% of Welsh food and drink is exported to the EU. We have been used to that tariff free single market, it is very important we retain access to that single market but in the meantime while that is being discussed I have told officials we need to look across the world, as we have previously, but we need to be looking harder and more imaginatively to make links with other countries.”

“Last week at the Royal Welsh Show I met with the United States agricultural department as we are working with America to get them to take our lamb again and had a very productive meeting. It is very important that I, as Minister, make these links, and my officials also.

The new Assembly has seen the introduction of UKIP AMs – with Neil Hamilton making comments about concubines and hareems during his appearance at the Senedd. We asked Lesley what it has been like working with UKIP…

“They have been democratically elected. I don’t agree with their policies. I thought the comments from Neil Hamilton were outrageous and unacceptable and that has been dealt with by the Presiding Officer.

“We have to work together and in fact the committee that will be looking into my portfolio the most is in fact chaired by Mark Reckless. It is important that they are there to scrutinise the Government and I am sure they will do that.”

Focusing on the issues with the UK Labour Leadership at the moment, we asked if this was affecting the perception of Labour in Wales and how it’s panning out in the local Labour Party…

“It has some impact on us, but I think the Welsh Labour brand is quite distinct. Particularly on the back on the Assembly election, we are the only Labour government in the UK, and I think the UK Labour Party look to us in Cardiff and across Wales, and hopefully can learn from us.

“Whilst it would be daft to say there isn’t an impact, it saddens me greatly to see what is going on, it is very difficult. People have very different views of the candidates, and we are of course into a leadership election.”

Finally we asked Lesley what she would want to highlight from her new portfolio…

“Young famers and new entrants. I’m very interested in how young people, and for those with a farming background it is slightly easier for them, but for people with no farming background who want to go on to university or college and do agriculture and how they then access to farms.

“I met a couple of groups of young farmers at the Royal Welsh and they are telling me things such as the banks are not lending money to them and I did not know how many small holdings and small farms were held by local authorities.

“Right across Wales all twenty two local authorities own small holdings and farms, and should encourage tenant farmers. Unfortunately in the current economic climate a lot of them are being sold off, and having looked at the last few that have been sold, quite often they are sold for holiday cottages or just for land. We want to keep that farming land and encourage young people into farming.

“I am looking forward to doing the piece of work around supporting young people and new entrants into farming.”

You can follow Lesley on her AM / more personal twitter account here, or her Ministerial work via the official Welsh Government account here.