Hain publishes Welsh Labour prescription

Peter Hain has set out a blueprint as to how Labour can maintain and rebuild support in Wales.

The former Wales secretary, who resigned earlier this year, said it would not be accurate for the party to pin the blame for its loss of votes in recent years on Westminster issues such as the unpopularity of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Instead he suggested that the devolved assembly administration must take its share of responsibility for Labour's declining fortunes, which resulted in a rout of the party's councils and councillors in the local elections earlier this month.

Hain described the Welsh results as a "wake-up call" for Labour which had shown up the weaknesses of first minister Rhodri Morgan's "clear red water" strategy.

In a pamphlet for the Progress think-tank, he said the party needed to reach out to a wider array of supporters, such as English settlers who have moved to Wales.

"Incontrovertibly, Labour has transformed Wales for the better," he said on Monday.

"But we are no longer benefiting politically, because we have not transformed ourselves."

"It would be deeply complacent to pass these [results] off as respectively the fault of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's governments, or of a familiar mid-term response to longevity in power," the Neath MP added.

"Modern Wales needs to be offered policies which are not defined by their 'Welshness' or 'redness', but by the quality of their outcomes for Welsh citizens."

However assembly minister Carwyn Jones claimed that the Labour group in the Cardiff assembly group should not be blamed.

"Everything I heard on the doorstep about the assembly was positive," he told BBC Wales' Politics Show on Sunday.

"It was all to do with global politics in fact - not even Westminster politics."