Eluned Morgan: Outside the Bubble but also inside.?

It takes a special nerve for someone with the title Baroness Morgan of Ely to portray herself as the outsider.

But that appears to be what Eluned Morgan running for Welsh Labour Leader and thus by default First Minister seems to be claiming.

Launching her campaign 

"People recognise that come the next election, Labour will have been in power for more than 20 years, we need to look different and sound different and be different, and I think that's what I offer."Labour will need a leader with broad experience but a leader with freshness and vigour to deliver dynamic change in the digital era," 

Ms Morgan said that having to fight to get on the ballot was a "good test in terms of leadership".

"There's an opportunity for somebody who is not a part of the inner circle in the Assembly to come and change things and that's what I'd like to do.
"I want to change the culture in the Labour group in the Assembly. I am not an insider nor someone who will take a top down approach to politics, but I see myself as a bit of a disrupter, someone who won't be restricted by the conventions of the past, but someone who is willing to track a new course but which continues to respond to the concerns of members and trade unionists".

 Asked if she thought she could win the contest, she replied: 

"I think that politics is extremely unpredictable. You have just got to remember what happened with Jeremy Corbyn. He was written off at the start of the campaign and he was loaned votes to get him onto the ballot."He was challenging the established order but his impact on the party now has been transformational, particularly in areas like where I represent.

Baroness Morgan a Corbynist ? and there's me thinking she wa svery much part of Tony Blair's New Labour.

"Not being part " of the inner circle ? yYh right.

Eluned Morgan served on the Welsh Labour Party Executive for ten years and was appointed to the Welsh Assembly Advisory Group which was responsible for developing the standing orders of the National Assembly of Wales. In November 2017 she was appointed Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning.

So is she saying the Labour government in the assembly, has an inner circle from which the minister for the Welsh Language is excluded?

All the Labour leadership candidates have proposed changes, but all are seem just like Ms Morgan ato bemerely making claims that they , will make changes in Welsh Government polices, often as in Ms Morgan case life long learning ignoring the fact that she has failed to do this as minister.

With both her rivals representing Cardiff constituencies, she said she feels able to represent the whole of Wales, having grown up in Ely and now representing Mid and West Wales.

"There are huge pockets of poverty in rural areas and some of this I have picked up as a result of holding information days about the rollout of universal credit. Listening to people who are suffering and understanding that lots of them are losing significant amounts of money because of it

Ms Morgan is a a AM for a regional seat, and  by the nature of the top up system would be vulnerable , to  being ousted if her party make gains in Mid and West Wales in the same way former Tory Nick Bourne  leader lost his seat despite making gains.


So what's the betting on Ms Morgan if she became leader seeking  a constituency seat, perhaps even in Cardiff?

As I said portraying her self as an outsider, in the mannner of Corbyn may be a smart move, but it is similar to Boris Johnson and Wiliam Rees Mogg referring to  those fighting against Brexit as "elites".

Don't be be surprised however if it works.