Universal benefits vs means tested benefits is often where the battle for the soul of the Labour Party begins and ends. It is the former that stirs the most pride in party history, especially the post-war Labour government, but became the first casualty since the general election in July.
In contrast to the recent winter fuel payment cut, Welsh Labour since devolution 25 years ago, has taken and held universalism as its raison d’etre throughout that time. Free prescriptions, two years of free childcare and more recently, free universal primary school meals, to name a few.
All this comes at a critical juncture, and poses challenging questions for the new First Minister, Eluned Morgan. With the cut to winter fuel payments, will she eye an opportunity to put herself and her party at odds with Westminster? A conscientious objection at a moment when Welsh Labour are in need of a shot in the arm ahead of 2026?
Historical battles
The First Minister would be in very good ancestral company, at least. Wales seems near expert at producing critical friends and even revolutionary Labour politicians who challenge the status quo in Westminster.
One pivotal moment came in the post-war Labour government, the founder of the NHS and top of the left’s totem pole, Aneurin Bevan, resigned over Clement Atlee’s cancellation of free dentistry and optician provision on the NHS. A decision many want righted, even today.
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Under the last Labour government, Rhodri Morgan and his advisers, one of whom, Mark Drakeford, a student of Bevan who would later go on to be First Minister, coined the term ‘Clear Red Water’.
The term, designed to create distance as New Labour’s divergence from the party’s founding principles got fully underway, also saw the beginning of the rollout of a number of universal provisions.
Fast forward
In the modern era, these traditions often fight to stay alive within the context of constrained budgets, and a political climate that does not lend itself to what appear to be on the surface, expensive universal provisions.
However, the provision of universal free prescriptions in Wales has turned out to be not only popular, but cost-effective in its constrained health spending environment.
The measure has seen little increase in cost since it was first introduced, with then Health Minister, Vaughan Gething, pointing out ten years after its introduction that the provision of free prescriptions had kept people out of hospital and cut overall NHS costs.
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Counterintuitively, and using pre-Covid figures, the Welsh Government said the £593m cost of free prescriptions in 2015 was only £3m more than the bill in 2007. When you account for inflation, this is a remarkable achievement.
In other words, universal provisions, especially within this healthcare example can lead to positive long-term outcomes. Fiscally responsible and socially beneficial In today’s climate, universalism is a hard sell, with any price tag interrogated to a degree where government will tend to shy away.
Even with that said, the ongoing popularity of universal benefits and how they have stood the test of scrutiny and time, to the point of unconscious acceptance by the Welsh public, ought to be of note.
Pride and social justice
Welsh Labour’s adoption of universal public provisions is a continuation of that differentiation, within the present framework of Welsh devolution. Now having been in power for 25 years, it is easy sometimes to forget that many of the benefits Welsh people enjoy are pretty much sewn into the fabric of day-to-day life.
Rejuvenating this quest for social justice is still on the table quite literally, as the Welsh government recently introduced universal free school meals for all primary school children. A measure which has an initial price tag of £225m over three years to tackle longer-term dietary health challenges in children, including malnutrition and child poverty during critical early years education.
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Universalism is not just affordable but beneficial to society’s long-term outcomes as a whole even while sitting at the core of the Labour Party’s foundational principles.
It may need to be more targeted than would be the ideological ideal, but it is at least a starting point to fend off challenges from both left and right in Britain. This is presently the case in Wales as challengers Reform UK and Plaid Cymru begin their own battles against Labour dominance in Wales ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections.
Battle lines in the wider war
Could this focus on universalism be an electoral strategy for Welsh Labour to fend off challenges from Plaid Cymru and Reform UK? If so, could there be lessons Keir Starmer can observe this far ahead of the 2029 next general election?
Universal benefits are not a relic of the past, but a just, cost-effective, and popular public policy framework. As Welsh Labour shows, with the right political will, affordable universalism is still possible, and it might just hold some answers to reinvigorating Labour across the UK, after a rocky start to governing.
With the Welsh Labour Party soon to begin the manifesto-writing process ahead of 2026, it remains to be seen whether the party feels it can make public policy and spending commitments. In other words, will universal principles continue to be embraced in contrast to UK-wide austerity, or find ambitions stymied by the public purse?
With mounting pressures on public services, political challenge and spending constraints, the manifesto could well be the most important the party has ever assembled.
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