Like the Cabinet Secretary, I was brought up in a home where both my parents worked for a local council, providing local services to children and adults in Gwynedd. I’ve been a community councillor and a county councillor, and I share the Cabinet Secretary’s view on the importance of local government. This is the safety net that safeguards our most vulnerable people and communities. The task is becoming increasingly difficult as the austerity policies bite, and I have the utmost respect for the work undertaken by our local councils across Wales.

Therefore, what on earth is going on in this Government’s ranks? Today, we received confirmation of a far-reaching u-turn on the future of our councils. After two years of going in one direction under the leadership of Mark Drakeford, we see a new Cabinet Secretary bringing a Green Paper forward that is a substantial and shocking u-turn. This saga—indeed, this farce—poses fundamental questions of the ability of this Government to govern effectively, and poses fundamental questions of the current leadership of the Government.

You will recall in July 2015 that there was an announcement by Leighton Andrews, the Minister for local government at that time, that proposed the creation of eight or nine local authorities from the 22 we currently have. You’ll recall the storm of protest that emerged from that, and, by the time of the publication of the Labour manifesto before the 2016 Assembly, that had been ditched. There was no commitment to that number of councils or, indeed, any number of councils that Labour would want to create. Unison said at that time: