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The big political news has been the resignation of the Prime Minister. Despite showing little political nous and awareness during his short tenure, he has accepted the reality that the time to call it a day has dawned. His unpopularity was borne out on the doorstep throughout Casnewydd and Islwyn during the long Senedd campaign. 

The removal of the winter fuel allowance, a failure to come good on promises made to 1950s-born women, and his refusal to revisit the poor funding of Wales through the Barnett formula and transport projects, conspired to make him an electoral liability for his party in Wales and beyond.

It is unfortunate he believed he could take on Reform from a right-wing perspective by pandering to their narrative with some ill-judged policies, pronouncements and speeches. As Plaid Cymru showed in the Caerphilly by-election and in the Senedd elections, you take on and defeat Reform by presenting a progressive, positive vision for our communities and our country. 

Some of the UK newspapers have advanced the view that he was the worst Prime Minister in recent history but that was plainly absurd when you have the likes of Liz Truss and Boris Johnson in just the last few years alone to contend for that infamy.

The one thing I will give Starmer credit for is resisting the intense pressure to join the US in the first couple of weeks during their assault on Iran. Given what has transpired since, it is hard to believe that many British commentators – not to forget political leaders like Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman – were calling Starmer weak for not joining in with the bombing of Iran.

It was clear to most people that the brave, not to mention sensible, thing to do was to resist the calls of Trump and stay out of a conflict that made little sense other than to distract from the domestic problems faced by the US President.    

I only hope that whoever becomes Labour’s leader in Westminster and therefore Prime Minister – and we have a very good idea who that may be – becomes a better friend to Wales than Starmer was. I also hope that we will finally have a cabinet secretary of state for Wales who will stand up for Wales in Westminster rather than stand up for Westminster in Wales, as is currently the case.

If Labour learns the lessons of May’s Senedd elections, they will surely work to overturn generations of underfunding of Wales that they were only too happy to agree with Plaid Cymru on whilst in opposition but have been loathe to do anything about it in this government or the last time they were in power between 1997 and 2010.

While Labour has been in turmoil in Westminster, the Plaid Cymru government has been getting on with the job of delivering for the people of Wales. Most targets and milestones that were set for the first 100 days of government have already been met.

These achievements include a £55 million investment in childcare, including the rollout of funded childcare to more two-year-olds across Wales, an extra £145m for our NHS Wales this financial year – which includes £100m of revenue funding to support our aim of reducing NHS waiting times – and an additional £25m of capital funding for new surgical and diagnostic hubs.

The government has also allocated a further £15m to start enabling more secondary pupils to receive free school meals. I understand in the coming weeks there will be further announcements which include £8m for the young person’s bus fare, £2m for north–south coach travel, £2m for the Cynnal child payment, £2m for school swimming, and £20m for social housing to name but a few.

It is important that we deliver on our electoral promises and, judging by the first six weeks, Plaid Cymru in government is certainly delivering. I look forward to seeing what else it can achieve in the coming weeks, months and years.