Welsh Labour: Carwyn Jones offers Eluned Morgan nomination for leader

Carwyn Jones has told his party he is willing to lend his support to a female candidate to make sure the contest to succeed him is not an all-male choice.

In his final Labour conference speech as the Welsh leader, he also urged Labour to put aside internal arguments.

Mr Jones said "if necessary" he would nominate Eluned Morgan - the only woman to throw her hat in the ring - to make sure she gets on the ballot paper.

Candidates need the support of five AMs and Ms Morgan is one short.

Only two male candidates in the leadership contest - Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething - have so far got the nominations they need from fellow Labour AMs.

With 16 nominations, there has been increasing pressure on Prof Drakeford's camp to lend Ms Morgan the support she needs.

"I have always stated that it would be wrong, utterly wrong in 2018, to have such a contest without a woman on the ballot paper," he said.

"If necessary I will lend my nomination to make sure that happens.

"And to describe that as tokenism will be a description that is given by those who do so from a position of privilege and wilful ignorance," he added.

Local government secretary Alun Davies, who is backing Ms Morgan, has claimed she was being deliberately stopped from entering the leadership contest.

Mr Jones told BBC Radio Wales he had seen no evidence that there was a deliberate attempt to do so.

Eluned Morgan said she was "delighted" that Mr Jones had understood "party members wanted to see a diverse range of candidates for the leadership election".

"This is a victory for the grassroots members," she said,

"I'm disappointed its taken this long. I'm disappointed that its taken the fact that I'm a woman to get me on the ballot.

"I would like to think that my experience, long experience in the European Parliament, which will be very useful for Brexit, my experience on the front bench in the House of Lords for Jeremy Corbyn, would mean I could bring something additional to the table."

Mr Drakeford congratulated Ms Morgan and welcomed her to the contest, while Mr Gething said: "Carwyn is absolutely right and it's simply obvious. It's 2018. As I have said several weeks ago we should not stop a woman getting on the ballot."

Mr Jones, who is due to step down in December, has said he is not backing any candidate in the race to replace him.

Carwyn Jones urged the party to remember the values of decency and civility in his conference speech.

Neither has been evident in abundance during recent rows about anti-Semitism and the battle for control of the party machine.

His message to the party was this: you won't get a chance to taste success in the rest of Britain if Labour continues to tear itself apart.

The last thing they want is another row about a leadership contest turning into a case of only men allowed.

After infighting over anti-Semitism and internal party rules, Mr Jones told conference Labour could not afford "petty distractions" if it wanted to get into power in Westminster.

"To better the country we first have to better ourselves," he told delegates in Liverpool.

In the speech, Mr Jones said the Welsh Government would ratify the Istanbul convention on violence against women and girls.

He said doctors and dentists would get a pay rise above the level they will receive in England, with further details to be announced on Tuesday.