Senedd election: Welsh Labour defends health and education record - BBC News
Leader and First Minister Mark Drakeford however admits failings on cancer waiting time targets.
Mark Drakeford is hoping to lead Welsh Labour into another five years in power

Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford has defended his party's 22-year record in government on the NHS and education, ahead of Thursday's Senedd election.

But, he conceded cancer waiting time targets have not been met since 2008 and did not say if a commitment to cut infant class sizes had been reached.

The Welsh Tories warned of a "managed decline" if Labour remains in power.

Plaid Cymru said re-electing a Labour-led administration would not bring a "new Wales".

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Wales programme Mr Drakeford, who is also the current first minister, said his party's "record is a record of addressing problems".

He pointed to improvements on unemployment and economic inactivity.

But in 2019, Wales' performance was the worst of all UK nations on the Pisa international tests, for the fifth successive time.

"Other countries in the United Kingdom went down but we were up in all three - in English, in mathematics, and in science - our movement was up," Mr Drakeford said.

"To characterise the Welsh education system as though it had not made, I think, enormous strides over devolution is simply to be a very partial account."

A commitment to reduce infant class sizes was part of the deal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats when Kirsty Williams joined the last Welsh government as education minister.

But according to the Welsh government's own school census data, the average infant class size has barely improved - 25.6 in 2016 compared to 25.4 in 2020.

Andrew RT Davies is targeting a first term in office for the Welsh Conservatives

Challenged about the failure to meet the commitment, Mr Drakeford did not directly address the point.

"What we have managed to do is we've managed to stop the rise in infant class sizes.

"In many parts of Wales we have managed to do that [reduce class sizes].

"There are some parts of Wales where buildings, the physical layout of schools means it's very difficult to do that.

"But I think our record on infant class sizes is one of continued investment."

The target of at least 95% of patients diagnosed with cancer starting treatment within two months has not been met since 2008.

But Mr Drakeford said: "In percentage terms we haven't met the target, in volume terms far more people are seen within our target times than ever before.

"And that's because working with the medical profession, we've succeeded in getting more people identified earlier, more people seen quickly, and as a result our cancer survival times in Wales at one year and at five years have improved throughout the whole of that period."

"Our manifesto has ambition on every single page on it - ambition for our young people, ambition for our environment," he added.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme, the leader of the Conservatives in the Senedd said the first minister had "a very managerial style of government".

"We can't afford just to have a managed decline of Wales continue for another five years," Andrew RT Davies said.

"This is about making sure that when we put that manifesto to the people of Wales, they have confidence that we can deliver the solutions that people face in their everyday lives, whether that be on the economy with jobs, whether that be in public services with waiting times, whether that be in education with catch-up, or whether it be on the environmental or infrastructure goals we've set ourselves."

Also speaking on Sunday Supplement, Plaid Cymru's leader Adam Price criticised what he believed was a lack of progress under successive Labour-led governments.

"Many of the goals they have set have been absolutely laudable ones - setting the target for eradicating child poverty by 2020, many of the environmental principles," he said.

"But the problem is with lack of progress in turning those perfectly laudable values and principles into reality for the people of Wales. That's the frustration.

"We're not going to make progress towards achieving that new Wales that we want to see if we simply re-elect a Labour-led administration again."

Cadan ap Tomos, the Liberal Democrats candidate in Ceredigion, said the party was campaigning for recovery of the health service - with an emphasis on mental health - the economy and the environment.

Speaking in Aberystwyth, he said: "We are the only party that champions liberalism the champions freedom the rights of the individual, that isn't going to change."