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Welsh Labour leader Rhodri Morgan campaigning against prescription charges and university top-up fees with party members in 2003. These have been supported by UK Labour in England but opposed by Welsh Labour in Wales as part of its clear red water strategy.

In Welsh politics, the term clear red water (Welsh: dŵr coch clir) refers to the Welsh Labour political strategy of maintaining support by distancing itself from the rest of the UK Labour Party through the adoption of a more distinctly progressive, socialist, left-wing and culturally Welsh policy platform and brand. It was first conceptualised by party leader Rhodri Morgan and his advisers in the early 2000s and was further developed by his successors Carwyn Jones and Mark Drakeford, becoming the party's signature strategy. In 2024, the strategy was abandoned under Drakeford's successor Vaughan Gething, with Welsh Labour now focussing on unity and cooperation with the UK party.

Since 2024, the leader of Welsh Labour has been Eluned Morgan, who previously opposed the strategy before her leadership.

In the February–March 2024 Welsh Labour leadership election, Drakeford's economy minister Vaughan Gething, who was considered a close and loyal ally to UK Labour leader Keir Starmer and his leadership team, as well as seen as belonging to the right of the party, emerged as the frontrunner.

Background

Politically, Wales has traditionally been more left-wing and radical than the rest of the United Kingdom.

History

Formulation of the policy

The UK Labour Party led by Tony Blair secured a landslide victory in the 1997 general election on a manifesto which committed it to holding a devolution referendum in Wales. The 1997 Welsh devolution referendum returned a narrow majority in favour of Welsh devolution and as a result, the UK party leadership allowed the party in Wales to elect its own devolved leader for the first time.

the signature political strategy of Welsh Labour, first adopted in the early 2000s, of maintaining its support in Wales by distancing itself from the wider UK Labour Party through the adoption of more distinctly socialist, progressive and culturally Welsh brand and policy platform.

Under Mark Drakeford

Carwyn Jones resigned as the first minister of Wales and leader of Welsh Labour in the aftermath of the death of Carl Sargeant in 2018. Three candidates stood in the 2018 Welsh Labour leadership election to succeed him, including Mark Drakeford, Vaughan Gething and Eluned Morgan. Morgan had previously called for Welsh Labour to end clear red water after its performance in the 2007 assembly election in favour of a shift to the political centre-ground; on this occasion, she said it was time for the strategy to be reconsidered now that UK Labour had shifted back to the left under Corbyn's leadership. In its place, Morgan argued for a new strategy where Welsh Labour would broaden its policy programme to appeal to more voters and focus "not [on] what's happening in London" but on local needs across Wales. However, she also said the party was right to adopt its own distinct policy stances on important issues such as education or healthcare. Gething said the strategy was no longer needed, as Welsh Labour was now seen as more centrist than UK Labour under Jeremy Corbyn. Drakeford, like Corbyn, was on the left of the Labour Party. He was the only member of the Welsh Government to support his leadership campaign in 2015.

though she added that the party in Wales had been

and Drakeford called for the clear red water strategy to be reconsidered;

who helped create the strategy as Rhodri Morgan's special adviser in the early 2000s, argued that there was less need for the