A budget deal still yet to be struck - but with whom?

THE passing of the Welsh Government’s budget isn’t usually the most riveting of things.

- Political editor Ruth Mosalski

Important, yes, but exciting? No. The £27bn budget for 2026-27 will fund things everyone in Wales needs - councils, hospitals, schools... the list goes on. But it can only pay for those if the budget passes.

And that is why this year's upcoming budget is more interesting than usual. It isn’t just something political types or those with an interest in the inner workings of Cardiff Bay should care about, but all of us.

This year, there is real jeopardy facing Labour, which is the party in charge of Wales, about whether it can even get a budget across the line.

Labour has 29 of the 60 Senedd members - that means it has no majority and needs help from elsewhere to pass votes. If it can’t persuade two colleagues from outside Labour to back its budget in January’s vote, it begins a process we've not seen before in the days of devolved politics.

It would not only be devastating for so many people in so many ways because the funding available for Welsh services would (initially) fall to 75% of the amount that was available this year - but it would no doubt put the final nail in the coffin of any chance for Welsh Labour to avoid an awful election in May.

The polls currently have Welsh Labour in a distant third. If you fail to do the single biggest thing that falls under a government's remit and pass a budget, well, any voter who had missed out on their pay cheque or lost their job would surely be looking elsewhere.

We know that if it doesn’t pass, councils in Wales, which employ thousands of people, would have to issue redundancy notices and hike council tax to staggering levels.

There have been warnings it will damage the whole concept of devolution more widely too.

here examines the latest status of the embattled Welsh Government's bid to pass a budget