Huw Lewis has posted his opening statement on the Welsh Labour Leadership website.
Huw Lewis AM is the Welsh Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, a radical and sometimes controversial figure both in Government and on the backbenches. He has set the agenda on crucial issues such as Child Poverty, Social Justice and Labour Party reform in Wales for a number of years.
Born and brought up in the village of Aberfan, his childhood was shaped by the Aberfan disaster of 1966 – and his future politics were moulded by his community’s response to that tragedy.
Huw cut his political teeth at Edinburgh University, under the tutelage of two giants of the Labour Party, John Smith and Donald Dewar. After a period spent teaching chemistry, Huw was appointed Assistant General Secretary of the Welsh Labour Party in 1994. He co-ordinated the ‘Labour Yes Vote’ campaign in 1997 that led to the creation of the National Assembly itself.
Elected as the Labour and Co-Operative Party Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney in 1999, Huw served first as a Government Whip and then Deputy Minister for Education. As Deputy Minister for Social Justice he wrote the Welsh Assembly Government’s flagship Child Poverty Action Plan. He served briefly as Regeneration Minister before losing his post due to his private opposition to the formation of Labour – Plaid Cymru coalition Government.
He is currently the Chair of the Assembly’s Child Poverty Expert Group. He serves on the Welsh Labour policy forum and is a leading contributor to Welsh political think-tank Wales 20:20. He is a member of the Co-Operative Party, the Fabian Society and of UNITE the Union.
Huw launched his campaign to become Welsh Labour leader in his hometown of Aberfan where he outlined his vision for Wales.
Extracts from Huw Lewis’s launch speech: Aberfan, October 2009
I want you to know that I’m not in this contest to make up the numbers. I’m in this contest to win that battle of ideas and to put a defining vision back into the heart of this party we all love.
And it is here today I choose to open the door to my emerging manifesto for a better Wales – through these five key pledges.
A Welsh Opportunities fund – which we will create by setting up a national savings account, building our funds year on year – using the interest gathered to ensure deprived children get those educational extras, currently enjoyed by the better off.
We will set up a formal Social Partnership between Government, trade unions and business to agree long-term economic goals and ensure better working conditions.
I will work with all other political parties in the Assembly to establish an All Party Agreement on managing climate change – taking the politics out of an issue that must unite us all.
We will renew our commitment to the people’s NHS, putting patient outcomes at the heart of everything we do, giving our Ambulance crews the support they deserve and opening a new front against waiting times.
We will take our lead from the Co-operative Party in delivering new, imaginative – but workable – solutions to the shortage in affordable housing.
Let’s be under no illusion, Wales needs the Labour Party back at its fighting best – because the Tories are resurgent. The enemy is at the gates.
Only by regaining our confidence in our Labour values, regaining trust in our instincts – talking about what we want to save and develop – and not about what we want to cut, will we win back the trust that is ebbing away from us, election after election.
And it is not Thatcher’s Ghost we are fighting – we do not need to defeat the Tories because of what they did, though that is motivation enough, no we must defeat the Tories because of what they WILL do.
And as for our friends in Plaid Cymru. We may be in coalition with Plaid Cymru, but let’s not forget we are also in competition with them for the winning vision of this country’s future.
They want separation, we want co-operation. It’s time we introduced a bit of our own street smart in this coalition. It’s time we started to communicate our achievements and our vision more effectively – because like it or not Plaid are doing it better right now.
But I’m not here to rip up any agreement. When the party takes a democratic decision – I respect that decision. That is how the Labour Party works. It’s time to let Labour be Labour!
