Mark Drakeford announced this Wednesday the 13th his intention to resign from the leadership of the Welsh Government and the leadership of the Labor Party in the autonomous territory. The still Chief Minister of this nation of the United Kingdom will continue to exercise his ministerial position until the election of his successor in spring 2024, according to the provisionally planned schedule.
Drakeford confirmed his decision, in a message he issued in Welsh and English in front of the Parliament (Senedd) headquarters in Cardiff, exactly five years after his appointment as chief minister and Labor leader of Wales. He had been anticipating his withdrawal from the front line of politics in this northern region of Britain for months, if not years.
“When I ran for leadership, I said that if elected, I would hold the position for five years. It has been exactly five years since I was sworn in as chief minister,” he remarked, without giving a chance to questions from the media.
The coronavirus pandemic dominated the tenure of the distinguished academic and former Labor political adviser. He frequently clashed with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose purview of the health crisis was limited to England, both on social restrictions to contain the spread of the virus and on leadership style.
Drakeford projected serenity, caution and restraint in his frequent press conferences and messages to the nation during the outbreak of Covid-19. He came from the radical socialist tradition, from the “soft left”, and supported Jeremy Corbyn’s candidacy for the Labor leadership in 2015. The now leader of the party, Keir Starmer, recognized him this Wednesday in the Westminster Parliament as the “titan of Welsh Labor politics.
In the statement of resignation from his dual position, he gave a brief overview of the major issues that he has had to deal with during his five-year term, from the effects of the central government’s austerity policy to Brexit, the climate crisis, the wars in Ukraine and Middle East and “four different prime ministers, so far.” He would be referring to the chain of heads of the United Kingdom Government, from Theresa May to Rishi Sunak, who have succeeded one another in Downing Street since he took the reins of Wales.
Drakeford now passes the baton with an eye on the electoral calendar. The general elections to the Westminster Parliament must be held before January 2025 and, if the voting intention forecasts are met, his heir will have the “opportunity to work with the newly elected Labor government in London,” he said, hopeful of the change of party. in the central executive.
The still chief minister promised to work for a Labor victory in Wales and nationally. The regional elections are scheduled for May 2026, when his successor will try to consolidate Labour’s continued dominance in the territory since the ‘devolution’ of powers from Westminster to Cardiff approved in the 1997 referendum.