I'm following the 'red Welsh way', not Keir Starmer, says first minister

Eluned Morgan tells Rachel Sylvester that she won't be chasing Reform - or including the PM's photo on her election leaflets

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Like Keir Starmer, Eluned Morgan, Labour's leader in Wales, is under attack from both left and right. With Reform UK and Plaid Cymru rising in popularity, Labour is in third place in the polls and could lose power for the first time in 26 years in the Welsh elections next May.

"We recognise that we've got a challenge on our hands," Morgan says. "Reform is a serious threat."

The first minister's solution, however, is very different from the prime minister's approach to Nigel Farage. "We've been very clear that we're not chasing Reform," she says. "We have to make sure we deliver for people."

While ministers at Westminster make daily announcements designed to look tough on immigration, Morgan insists that immigrants are "valued and valuable" in Wales. "We've got about 6% of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, but almost 50% of doctors and dentists were not trained in Britain," she says. "Our health system would collapse without immigration and it's really important for us to make the case."

The first minister defines her distinctive message as the "red Welsh way", which means focusing on "community cohesion" and "justice" as well as economics. "I think that, generally, we've been more to the left in Wales," she says.

She was critical of Starmer's welfare reforms.: "I was very clear that the winter fuel allowance [change] was a problem."

She also opposed the government's proposed changes to disability benefits: "I didn't think the approach was going to meet the outcomes that they wanted." And she is adamant that the two-child benefit cap should be scrapped: "We were consistent in relation to that under the Tories, so I can't change my mind now we've got a Labour government."