Labour’s record on the economy in Wales is equally dire, with it seeing the UK’s largest increase in employment since last year. At the same time, it continues to ban new road-building and oversee a rail system Labour ministers admit has been “pretty bleak for a while”.
Instead of getting the basics right, Mr Drakeford and his colleagues have focused greater energy on taxing people in Wales to the hilt in order to pay for vanity projects.
Few people are safe from the squeeze. Council tax has more than trebled. Tourists face new levies in a system which surveys found could drive most holiday cottages out of business.
Meanwhile, drivers have been hit with now notorious 20 mph zones on roads that used to be 30 mph. Labour MPs admit they can be “frankly bonkers”, while the Welsh Government estimates the project could cost the Welsh economy up to £4.5 billion.
Unsurprisingly, the people of Wales have fought back, with record numbers signing a petition. Nearly half a million people have done so, awkwardly more than the number who voted for Welsh Labour at the last election.
When Labour isn’t busy taxing people in Wales, it is finding new things to ban.
For example, Mr Drakeford and his colleagues are clamping down on supermarkets selling meal deals despite warnings it will fail in its intended objective of curbing obesity by just “funnelling people into McDonalds”. They have also proposed banning tea and coffee for under-16s.
Time after time, Welsh Labour have shown they can be safely relied upon to take the most Left-wing approach to the big issues facing the UK.
While the Tories fight to stop the boats, Labour in Wales has offered to give arrivals £1,600 every month as part of its Universal Basic Income pilot. Mr Drakeford stood his ground in the face of accusations that he was “lining the pockets of people smugglers” by paying illegal immigrants, calling such criticism “shameful”.
Given all this, Sir Keir would be forgiven for longing to be rid of this constant political headache. As a Welsh Labour source tells the Mail: “It seems pretty obvious that the party leadership sees Mark as toxic and has asked him to step aside in the event that the election comes earlier. They know his record will be used by the Tories to beat up Keir.”
The Labour leader has struggled to hide his frustration in recent months, declaring in October he “can’t pretend” there were not any “challenges” in his relationship with colleagues in Cardiff.
Sir Keir also refused to repeat his past insistence that Welsh Labour was a “blueprint” for his own premiership, merely saying there was a “lot of stuff going on” that he was proud of.
It is too late now for Sir Keir to distance himself as Labour is showing in Wales what the party can be like in power. His hopes of becoming Prime Minister could be scuppered if too many people think he will build on Mr Drakeford’s high-tax, woke-rife nanny state.
Ultimately, Mr Drakeford had to go soon otherwise he would have been a posterchild for the Tories’ election campaign. But that won’t stop the Prime Minister from reminding voters regularly what the Starmer “blueprint” for power could entail.
