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Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Jo Stevens Secretary of State for Wales in his new Cabinet, following Thursday’s General Election victory.

The Cardiff East MP previously served as Shadow Welsh secretary from October 2016 to January 2017 and from November 2021 to May 2024.

Ms Stevens said: “It is a real privilege to be appointed to the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales and to serve in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet.

“Wales has a crucial role to play in powering the UK’s national renewal, contributing to our energy security and the industries that will deliver a prosperous future.

“My absolute priority is to deliver for Wales and work with the Welsh Government to stabilise the economy, drive investment and create jobs.

“As a result of our plans, people across Wales will share in that prosperity and we will tackle deprivation and poverty together.”

An exclusive Beaufort Research poll for NationCymru has shown that more than two thirds of people in Wales (68%) believe it was unacceptable for Vaughan Gething to have accepted donations totalling £200,000 from a waste firm whose owner had been convicted for illegally dumping waste.

Less than two in 10 people (19%) thought accepting the money from David Neal’s Dauson Environmental Group was acceptable, with the rest saying they didn’t know.

Older people were most likely to take the view that it wasn’t acceptable (with 77% of those over aged 55+ doing so, compared to 55% of 16-34s), although younger people were much more likely to answer “don’t know”.

First Minister Vaughan Gething has been accused of hypocrisy following a Labour campaign video in which he declared “change will only happen if you vote for it”.

The promotional video showing the party’s bright red bus making it’s way around battle ground seats in south Wales was posted to Welsh Labour’s X account on Monday (July 1).

A Labour general election battle bus touring Wales did not have Vaughan Gething as a passenger when it visited the seat where residents’ lives have been made a misery by his criminal donor.

Mr Gething accepted £200k for his Welsh Labour leadership campaign from a company owned by businessman David Neal, who was given two suspended prison sentences for dumping toxic sludge in the Gwent Levels protected landscape.

Another of Mr Neal’s companies has been responsible for the emission of nauseous odours from the Withyhedge landfill site near Haverfordwest for the best part of a year.

At the weekend, the party battle bus visited the new seat of Mid and South Pembrokeshire. But when a number of prominent Welsh Labour politicians disembarked to be greeted by their local candidate Henry Tufnell, there was no sign of the First Minister.

Early in the general election campaign NationCymru revealed how Mr Tufnell had asked Welsh Labour to tell Mr Gething to keep away from his constituency because of the First Minister’s association with Mr Neal.

In their 2024 general election manifesto, Plaid Cymru says they will “support the devolution of broadcasting powers to Wales”.

This would include the power to regulate, oversee and secure accountability for broadcasting and communications within Wales.

They also call for “the establishment of an independent Broadcasting Authority for Wales” and say they “see no reason why governance of S4C should be in the hands of Westminster, rather than our democratically elected representatives in Wales”.

Trust and confidence in UK politics and the election system have never been lower. One of the central reasons for this breakdown in trust is the widespread popular belief that some politicians have made a practice of lying to the public. Research published in 2022 showed the British public overwhelmingly wanted lying politicians to face consequences.

And while the UK’s general election is grabbing the headlines, a proposal in Wales’ Senedd (Welsh parliament) is seeking to address this issue by introducing new legislation that would criminalise politicians who lie. If passed, Wales would become the first country in the world to introduce criminal sanctions for lying politicians.

The Conservative Party has lost half of its support in Wales since the last UK General Election, according to an exclusive ITV News poll.

Only 19% of Welsh voters said they would vote Conservative, while nearly half of all voters (49%) plan to vote for the Labour Party.

The poll by Savanta found that Reform UK looks set to match Plaid Cymru and win 12% of the vote in Wales.

The survey adds to growing evidence that Labour is heading for a landslide win in Wales with the Tories fighting to avoid a repeat of the 1997 election where they lost every seat in the country.

The Conservative Party has lost half of its support in Wales since the last UK General Election, according to an exclusive ITV News poll.

Only 19% of Welsh voters said they would vote Conservative, while nearly half of all voters (49%) plan to vote for the Labour Party.

The poll by Savanta found that Reform UK looks set to match Plaid Cymru and win 12% of the vote in Wales.

The survey adds to growing evidence that Labour is heading for a landslide win in Wales with the Tories fighting to avoid a repeat of the 1997 election where they lost every seat in the country.

With the manifestos for Plaid Cymru and the Wales Green Party now out, what is in their foreign policy and defence policy sections? And how do the manifestos compare?

Both are left wing to left-of-centre parties, so I’d expect some crossover on certain issues like nuclear weapons, Ukraine, and Palestine. They are the biggest pro-Welsh independence parties standing in this general election, and are fielding candidates in all 32 Welsh seats. Let’s take a look at what they’re promising.

Aside from winning their two target seats, Plaid Cymru’s immediate challenge is to keep their profile high.

Their leader Rhun ap Iorwerth - and the party's views and policies - have had a lot of coverage over the past fortnight across Welsh and UK media.

But this is the time when voters really start to make up their minds, and the prevailing narrative is of a potential Conservative wipe-out and a potentially enormous Labour majority.

So how does Plaid Cymru continue to attract attention - and votes?

A high-profile barrister backed plans to make it a criminal offence for Senedd members and candidates to deliberately deceive the public.

Sam Fowles, of Cornerstone Barristers, gave evidence on former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price’s proposals to disqualify politicians from the Senedd for deliberate lying.

The lawyer was involved in the Miller case against the then-Prime Minister over the propagation of the UK parliament and appeals that exposed the Horizon Post Office scandal.

Mick Antoniw, the Welsh Government’s counsel general or chief legal adviser, last week raised concerns the deception proposals are “unworkable”.

But Dr Fowles told members of the Senedd’s standards committee: “I would be very, very confident if I was asked to defend this in a judicial review.”

A former Labour MP has made a passionate speech to thousands of people who gathered to march in support of Welsh independence.

The event saw marchers join with locals to make their way through the streets of Carmarthen clad in Welsh flags and YesCymru banners to show their support for an independent Wales.

In a bilingual speech, “proud socialist” Beth Winter demanded a fair funding settlement for Wales from Westminster, £4 billion in owed HS2 consequentials and the devolution of the Crown Estate.