First minister wants Wales to have closer ties with Europe

Eluned Morgan has said she was an "unapologetic" "Euro-enthusiast" and wanted Wales to have the closest possible relationship with the European Union.

The Labour first minister was responding to comments by the Labour Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan, who said the party should campaign to rejoin the EU at the next general election.

It comes as the party has shifted its tone on Brexit as it grappled with Britain's ailing economy.

But despite the prime minister saying last year that "Brexit had significantly hurt our economy", Downing Street has repeatedly said the UK government would not join the customs union and single market.

Morgan would not explicitly say Labour should promise to rejoin the EU during an interview on BBC Politics Wales, but she did say, "I am absolutely unapologetic that I always want the closest possible relationship".

"I am an absolute Euro-enthusiast. Leaving the EU has not been beneficial to Wales," she said.

"We've been cut in exports which affects jobs. We've been cut in terms of funding.

"We were promised we wouldn't be a penny worse off."

A total of 52.5% of voters in Wales backed Brexit in 2016 and Boris Johnson secured a bumper number of Welsh Conservative MPs in the 2019 general election with his promise to "Get Brexit Done".

Morgan joins a growing number of senior Labour figures openly discussing the UK's relationship with the EU.

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said in October he believed it was difficult to deliver the economic growth the government had promised outside the EU.

"I'm glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak," he told a literary festival and indicated that he believed being outside the EU was making it difficult to deliver the economic growth the government had promised.

Meanwhile, UK Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told a podcast it was "self-evident" that Brexit had damaged the economy and noted the economic benefit that Turkey had derived from its customs agreement with the EU.