Plaid Cymru fails to challenge Mark Drakeford - Tories

The leaders of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru have been accused of "patting each other on the back" since the two parties struck a co-operation deal.

Conservatives claim Plaid leader Adam Price has failed to challenge First Minister Mark Drakeford.

A former Labour minister said the deal meant Mr Price "inevitably" had to be more "circumspect".

Plaid said it was "strongly" opposing the Labour Welsh government on issues where they disagreed.

Mr Drakeford and Mr Price announced last November that they had reached an agreement to co-operate on dozens of policy areas in Cardiff Bay over three years.

The deal followed Labour's failure to secure an outright majority at the last Senedd election.

At the time Mr Price said his party would be "a co-opposition party, co-operating where possible while continuing to oppose and scrutinise and criticise where necessary".

However several months on, Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Conservative group in the Senedd, said that scrutiny of the government was "clearly not happening under the co-operation agreement".

His party has criticised Mr Price for often using his time in FMQs to attack the UK government or raise matters that are not the direct responsibility of Welsh ministers.

"In Wales, we've got one in five people on a waiting list, sadly our wage structure here in Wales has seen people take home less wages than other parts of the UK because of the economic policies of the Welsh government, we've lost a colossal amount of school days because of the pandemic," Mr Davies told the BBC's Politics Wales programme.

"There's a whole ream of things the FM should be challenged on - and ultimately the First Minister can put his case forward in FMQs - instead of patting each other on the back that seems to be happening at the moment."

Political commentator Liz Silversmith said the tone of Mr Price's contributions during FMQs had been "a lot more friendly and a lot more conciliatory".

Former Labour minister Andrew Davies, who was part of the Labour-Plaid coalition formed after the 2007 election told the programme: "Is [Adam Price] a leader of an opposition party or is he a quasi-member of the government?

"Inevitably if you've got 46 policy areas where you're developing policy jointly with Welsh Labour then presumably that means you have to be fairly circumspect in either the questions you ask on those policy areas or more widely."

Responding to the comments, Llyr Gruffydd, chair of the Plaid group in the Senedd, said: "If you just focus on First Minister's Questions then I think you're missing probably 95% of the work that goes on in the Senedd and more, but I don't feel there's been any particular change in tone or approach.

"In those areas where we oppose and disagree, we still oppose and disagree strongly.

"There are plenty of examples in recent weeks and months where we've been on the offensive when it comes to challenging the government.

"What does it say about our politics that people aren't happy that we're not fighting like cats in a sack?"

Former Plaid Assembly Member Nerys Evans said she would expect to see a Plaid strategy in the Senedd to differentiate the party from Labour.

"We haven't seen that yet, but I'm expecting that to happen," she added.

Elin Jones, the Senedd's presiding officer, or Llywydd, said: "As a modern Senedd we have been flexible to accommodate the changing political circumstances of party groups.

"Measures have already been put in place to ensure fairness for all Members in the Senedd as a result of the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh government.

"We will continue to review the situation to make sure that the Senedd effectively holds the Welsh government to account on behalf of the people of Wales."