Live updates as Mark Drakeford presents draft budget for Wales

Wales' finance minister Mark Drakeford will today lay out crucial Welsh Government's budget plans for the next financial year.

Today's draft plans lay out how the £27bn budget would be spent from 2026. As it is an election year the budget is designed so all government departments in the next financial year will have at least the same amount of funding, in real terms, as they had this year. There is, broadly, a 2% rise in every government department in terms of capital and revenue.

However politically this could be a problematic budget for Labour, which is in power in Wales. To pass the budget needs more than half of MSs to vote for it and Labour does not have the numbers on it own and will need help from elsewhere in the Senedd.

Should the government fail to pass the budget by the time the Senedd is dissolved in March, ahead of the election in May, the only money available is 75% of this year's budget – a prospect which has led to warnings about job losses in the public sector.

Mr Drakeford has urged colleagues to work with the Welsh Government to make sure the budget passes.

He says the budget he has put forward "provides a stable platform on which public services can plan in the run-up to the Senedd election".

Mr Drakeford said: "The draft budget is the beginning of the budget process – not the end. It provides a firm foundation to help public services plan for the year ahead.

"They can have confidence more can be done as we work towards the final budget in January. A lot will change between now and the vote in the Senedd at the end of January.

"My door is firmly open to working with other political parties in the Senedd who share my belief that a more ambitious budget can be reached and that we have a collective