Scottish and Welsh Labour leaders call for renewal in first conference speeches

Newly elected Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra and Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates used their first conference speeches as party leaders to acknowledge difficult election results and set out their visions for rebuilding Labour in Scotland and Wales.

Both leaders framed their first conference speeches around renewal, with Marra arguing Labour must give voters something to be for, while Skates said: “May shattered something. We can spend our time mourning what broke. Or we can build something better. I choose to build.”

Marra said Scotland had known what Labour was against but “didn’t know enough about what we were for”, setting out a platform of “social justice, good work, good housing, good public services”. He pledged to put education “back at the heart of Scottish politics” and make Scottish education “the best in the world again”.

He also called for a “new generation of devolution deals” in Scotland, arguing for “power and money in the hands of local people to grow their own economies”. Marra said Labour needed to offer voters hope rather than simply opposing its rivals: “We have to give people something to be for.”

Marra also highlighted Labour’s intervention at Glasgow City Council over fire and rehire, arguing that workers should not be forced to accept worse terms and conditions to keep their jobs.

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Skates, meanwhile, described Welsh Labour’s election result in May as “shattering”, saying there was “no point dressing it up” after more than two decades in government. He said the party’s task was not to “reconstruct a Welsh Labour Party that looks like the past”, but to “build something new. Something confident. Something exciting.”

The Welsh leader placed devolution at the centre of his pitch, arguing that the next phase should distribute power beyond Cardiff Bay and into communities. “The first phase of Welsh devolution was about transferring power to Wales,” he said. “The next phase must be about distributing power to the people.”

Skates also stressed the need for Labour to deliver tangible improvements in people’s lives, saying: “Hope needs substance. Hope needs purpose. Hope needs results.”

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