Questions now from party leaders. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies. 

Thank you, Presiding Officer. With your permission, Presiding Officer, I'd like to put on the record that our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the man who was killed yesterday in the tragedy in Swansea, and, also, I'm pleased to hear that two of the three people who went into hospital have now been discharged, and thank the emergency services and first responders at what must have been an apocalyptic scene when they arrived there to deal with the fallout from whatever the report into it will determine caused that devastating scene that we saw in the news reels last night and in the papers today. 

First Minister, last week, one of your Ministers called the Royal College of Nursing an 'extremely militant' organisation. He also said they were

'determined to have a fight', and aren't seriously willing to negotiate. That's a direct quote. Is that your take on the RCN and the dispute that they're engaged with with your Government over nurses' pay?  

Well, Llywydd, can I begin by agreeing with what the leader of the opposition said about events in Swansea yesterday? It must have been a hugely frightening experience for others who live in that locality. And the leader of the opposition is right, isn't he—we expect our emergency services to run towards sources of danger that other people will be running away from, and they are immensely brave, and the response they mounted yesterday was, thankfully, effective. Of course, our thoughts are with the family of the particular individual who lost their life, while we are glad to see the recovery of others caught up in that very frightening incident.

As far as the second part of the leader of the opposition's question, I'm First Minister, not a commentator on what other people say. What I can do is to be clear about the Welsh Government's position: we approach all industrial matters as a Government on the basis of social partnership. The RCN is a long-standing and valued member of the social partnership arrangements we have in health, and they are there today in the room discussing with employers and the Welsh Government ways in which we can continue to improve the performance of our national health service and the way in which those workers who we rely upon within it can be properly rewarded for the work that they do.

I'm pleased that you clarified what the Government's view is on what the RCN stands for—it is a view that I have—and also I declare an interest in having family members who are members of the Royal College of Nursing, a dedicated professional body of people who look after us in our time of need in hospitals and community settings. But do you not think it would be appropriate for a Minister, Deputy Minister, to actually apologise for those remarks that have caused upset to nurses within the profession, who do not want to be on strike, who are not a militant organisation and aren't up for the fight? They just want to get on with the job of looking after the patients who they care so passionately about.  

I've never known any public sector workers who want to be on strike. Llywydd, the truth of the matter is is that members of the RCN have been to driven to express their reaction to a decade of austerity, followed by galloping inflation on the money that they have to manage with every week. And you will never find a Welsh Government Minister who would say that public sector workers driven to that way of doing things don't deserve to be respected, and they are respected here in Wales, and they are included, as I say, within the social partnership arrangements. We'll have an opportunity tomorrow to vote on the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill. I look forward to the support of the leader of the opposition and his members in that—. Oh, it's today, I beg your pardon—later today. So, I look forward to his support then. 

Many people say, in the heat of the moment, things. I've been reading what was being said between the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Education when they competed with one another to criticise teachers during the COVID outbreak. I think those things are better put on one side. I've set out the position of the Government, and unambiguously that is one of inclusion, respect and joint approaches to problem solving.   

First Minister, you said that a Government Minister has not said that and doesn't support it. I gave you a direct quote of what the Deputy Minister said. That is a matter of fact. It is a matter of record, and people will see what the Minister said in the context of the Royal College of Nursing. Last week, you voted with the Conservatives—which was very pleasing, thank you very much for voting with us on our motion about the roads review—about the lack of consultation, the lack of the ability for the roads review panel to speak to communities, public representatives, businesses, the third sector. There was no ambiguity in what you were voting on, yet you clearly believe that there has been a lack of engagement in formulating this important policy that the Government has brought forward. If you believe there's a lack of engagement and constructive dialogue to formulate this policy, how can people have confidence that this policy stands the test of scrutiny and will deliver on your aspirations when you vote against the policy, as you did last week? 

Well, Llywydd, I imagine that any party who puts a motion down in front of the Senedd does so in the hope that they will persuade other people to support it. I'm puzzled that the leader of the opposition wants to take issue with the fact that we supported the motion that he put down. Now, I know that the—[Interruption.] He can't take 'yes' for an answer, indeed. So, the person who led the roads review has written to all Senedd Members today, Llywydd—maybe the leader of the opposition hasn't had a chance to catch up with that yet—setting out the engagement that the roads review panel undertook, and it is extensive, but also making the distinction—which the Minister made, I know, in answering the debate—that there was engagement of the sort that was appropriate to the roads review panel. And then there will be further opportunities for public consultation and engagement when particular schemes come forward for their implementation. That's a different sort of engagement. It doesn't mean that there wasn't engagement by the roads review panel, as the chair has set out, and there will be, in the case of the different aspects of the roads review, further opportunities, often statutory opportunities, for people to have their voices heard, their views known, and so to help shape policy, no doubt in the way that the leader of the opposition hoped he was doing last week when he put down his motion for debate. 

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price.

Thank you very much. May I, on behalf of Plaid Cymru, echo that our thoughts are all with the family in Morriston who lost a loved one in the terrible accident yesterday, and everyone else who was affected by it. 

First Minister, the UK Government has again and again refused to reclassify HS2 as an England-only project, robbing Wales of £5 billion in Barnett consequentials that could be transformative of our public transport infrastructure. That's even though the UK Government's own analysis shows that it's more likely to damage Wales than to provide any benefit. Will you be calling on any future Labour administration to rectify that mistake?

Llywydd, I believe it's common ground across all parties on the floor of the Senedd that HS2 has been wrongly classified by the UK Government, that it should be classified on the basis, as in Scotland, that there are Barnett consequentials. That is the policy of this Government. I've articulated it many times here.

Just on the specific, First Minister—because this is quite important, isn't it—will that remain your position in the event of a Labour administration in Westminster? Will you be making that point very forcefully to a future Labour administration, not just to give Wales its share of any future expenditure, but also to give us the £1 billion that we've lost already through the £20 billion phase 1 expenditure there's already been? Now, it was welcome to hear the leader of the UK Labour Party commit to the repatriation to Wales of powers over structural funds, but can you say whether you expect any future Labour administration as well to honour the commitment that Wales would not receive a penny less than it would have received under the 2020 to 2027 programming period for European funds? So, between 2024 and 2027, that would mean an additional £1 billion in funding to Wales on top of, of course, the £1 billion that you have pointed out as a Government we have lost between 2021 and 2025.

Llywydd, it was a very welcome announcement indeed that Sir Keir Starmer made at the weekend, that, should there be a Labour Government after the next general election, the powers and the funding that have been taken away from Wales will be restored to Wales, so that the decisions on those really important regional economic development decisions will be taken here in this Senedd. I look forward very much to working as hard as I can to make sure that we have that opportunity here in Wales. 

An incoming Labour Government inevitably will have to make difficult spending decisions, given the economic circumstances that it will inherit. We will be there, of course, working alongside our Labour colleagues, were they to be in that position, to maximise the draw-down of funds to Wales. 

So, if I understand the First Minister correctly, you're not able to say that a future Labour administration would commit to the same level of funding that we would have had under European funds, and you're not able to say that we will get the Barnett consequential.

In relation to the devolution of powers, the leader of the Labour Party said that he will await the publication of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales. Now, given its pivotal status, based on that statement in the formation of Labour Party policy for the next election, can you say whether you will be specifying in your further submissions to the commission the powers that you as a Labour Government here in Wales are seeking to have devolved? Will they still include areas like policing and justice, or indeed gender recognition, where senior Labour Party figures at Westminster have expressed opposition or scepticism, and they weren't included in the Brown commission report? Who will have the final say? Will the decision be made in Wales, to quote you from earlier, or will it be made in Westminster, and, if it's the latter, aren't you devolving the rulebook while leaving the power where it has always been?

Llywydd, I was able to discuss with Keir Starmer the work of the McAllister-Williams review. He referred to it specifically in the speech that he made to the Labour Party conference, and I was very heartened by the fact that he is determined to show proper respect to the work of that Welsh commission, and to await its recommendations before taking decisions on policies that will enter the Labour manifesto. That's very good news for Wales, particularly given the calibre of the work that the Williams-McAllister commission is undertaking. 

The policies of the Welsh Labour Government are unchanged in relation both to justice and gender recognition. We believe that the Thomas review concluded, in any sensible sense, the argument in favour of devolution of justice to Wales. The authoritative nature of its analysis and recommendations we believe mean that that case is made, and we'll continue to advocate for that.

Implementation of that policy has to start somewhere, and the Gordon Brown report suggests that it should start with youth justice and with probation, and those would be very, very important first steps. First steps are often the most difficult steps of all on a journey, and, in relation to gender recognition, we continue to pursue now, with the current UK Government, the devolution of those powers here to Wales. There is no reason why powers that we seek under one set of circumstances would not be powers that we would continue to seek in others.

The way that decisions are finally made in a Labour Party manifesto, which covers the whole of the United Kingdom and will have many, many competing priorities for an incoming first-term Labour Government, are well known. There will be Welsh voices in the room when that manifesto process is being undertaken, and they will be arguing for the sorts of policies that the leader of Plaid Cymru has rehearsed this afternoon.