We’re at the Senedd… well, just next door to the Senedd as the usual building has renovation work. Members are still ready to ask and answer the big questions, and this week, they’re discussing Port Talbot, welfare reform by the UK Labour Party and soaring childcare costs in Wales.
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00:01Our Senate members have spent the last three weeks on Easter recess.
00:04They've been up to things in the background, but this is our first chance for a little while to hear from them at First Ministers' Questions.
00:10I'm here outside the Senate, but our members are actually just next door in Tihil.
00:16They'll be here while renovation work preparing for an expanded Senate takes place, so it might look a little different than usual.
00:22We've still got plenty on the docket this week with welfare reform to childcare,
00:26but first up, we're hearing from Plaid Cymru leader Threenap Yodworth, who has taken the chance to get to the bottom of the steelworking industry in the UK.
00:33When a few weeks ago, Scunthorpe Steelworks was nationalised, saving thousands of jobs, but the same didn't happen for poor Talbot last year.
00:40Questions have been raised extensively over why emergency legislation could be passed on the other side of the border,
00:45while poor Talbot has been left with thousands being made redundant.
00:49Today is my first opportunity to be able to question the First Minister after the emergency session at Westminster in the recess
00:54to safeguard, at least in the short term, virgin steelmaking in British Steel's Scunthorpe plant.
01:00I visited Port Talbot in the days after and saw deep anger at Labour's betrayal of the steelworkers there,
01:07who lost their jobs as their blast furnaces were closed.
01:11We even had Labour MPs from Wales having their pictures taken to saving British steel placards on the day of the Scunthorpe debate.
01:19But when it came to Port Talbot, nothing.
01:21Listen, let me make it clear that I understand the concerns of the local population.
01:27Port Talbot, Llanwern, other places, Scotland have been going through a really tough time for, not just in the past year,
01:35but for a prolonged period of time. There's been a Damocles sword hanging over the steel sector for a very long time.
01:43A recent welfare reform bill from the UK government has sparked massive outcry across the country.
01:48And the plied leader says that a disproportionate number of Welsh people will be affected by the changes.
01:53So it wants to know that the First Minister is doing what she can to help people while her counterparts in the UK are pushing forward with the move.
02:00Can the First Minister give an assurance that no Labour MP from Wales will vote for any reforms which impoverish the vulnerable in Wales?
02:09And can she clarify whether, as the leader of the Labour Party in Wales, it will be her or Keir Starmer instructing Labour MPs from Wales how to vote?
02:20Well, that's a daft question. Have I heard one? Look, we are going to engage seriously on the welfare reform issues.
02:33We think we've got a really good model when it comes to how welfare reform should work.
02:39I think we've proved that in relation to our youth unemployment approach and the fact we have half the levels of youth unemployment compared to England.
02:47I think there's some lessons there that can be learned.
02:50Look, I work with our Labour group in the Senate. I do not control the Labour group in Westminster.