'Crisis' could threaten coalition's future

12 Nov 2008

'Crisis' could threaten coalition's future

The future of the One Wales coalition at the Welsh Assembly may be under threat by an "artificial crisis" being "manufactured" by anti-devolution MPs at Westminster, according to senior Plaid figures.

The coalition between the Welsh Labour Party and Plaid Cymru was negotiated in the wake of the National Assembly election last year that resulted in a large Labour plurality, but no majority.

The partnership's future is now in doubt after reports that Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, could side with the House of Commons' Welsh Affairs Committee over the scope of the Assembly's powers.

The committee wants to see changes to the affordable housing Legislative Competence Order that would mean the Assembly could not automatically suspend the rights of tenants to buy council homes in times of housing shortages. Plaid members are against the move, seeing it as an unacceptable precedent.

Wales Online reported a senior Plaid source as saying: "It is looking increasingly as if those Welsh Labour MPs who always opposed the coalition with Plaid are trying to manufacture an artificial crisis that will result in the One Wales deal falling apart."

But the chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, Dr Hywel Francis, said he believed rumours that Labour MPs were trying to wreck the coalition were unfounded, adding that he himself was a "strong supporter" of democratic devolution.

Copyright © Press Association 2008