Mark Drakeford wants to shake up Welsh politics

UNTIL RECENTLY allies of Mark Drakeford, the first minister of Wales, would have said he was neither recognisable nor photogenic enough to be centred in campaign materials. But since becoming first minister in 2018, the grey-haired former social worker with a penchant for ill-fitting suits has become a political star. At the Labour Party’s recent conference in Brighton he was both warmly welcomed at a far-left fringe meeting and applauded rapturously when the party’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, lauded his electoral success. Celebrity, says Mr Drakeford, is not necessarily an asset. But it gives him a chance to shift the policy agenda in Wales—despite strong headwinds and a devolution settlement that reserves to Westminster some of the powers he would like to use.