First minister accused of moving goalposts as he says two year NHS waits will end by May

Reform has accused Plaid Cymru of moving the goalposts, after the first minister said the longest waits in the NHS would be down to zero in "less than a year".

Since it entered government, in May, Plaid ministers have promised to rapidly eradicate waits of two years or more within a "matter of months", although they have never given a precise date.

On Tuesday, Rhun ap Iorwerth said this would be within the first year of his government.

He spoke as the Welsh government set out its programme for government on Tuesday morning.

The government vowed action on NHS waits, the cost of living, child poverty, jobs and to raise standards in schools.

Recent figures showed 4,700 cases were waiting two years or more - a 15% rise over the course of a month and 82% higher than the position at the end of March.

Ap Iorwerth's Health Minister, Mabon ap Gwynfor, repeated the waits pledge most recently on BBC Politics Wales on Sunday, saying he was "confident" the two-year lists would be eradicated "in a matter of months".

On Radio Wales Breakfast, ap Iorwerth said: "We have said that in months, certainly less than a year, we will bring down to zero the longest waiting times, because it's not acceptable."

It initially was not clear other what period the year began in.

Asked about NHS waits by Reform MS Llŷr Powell, ap Iorwerth said: "I have said that the most extreme, over two-year waits, they have to go.

"I said they'll go in months - that goes a year from coming into government - they are gone. That's months... months is not more than a year."

In response, Reform's Wales leader Helen Jenner said: "The goalposts keep moving while patients continue to wait.

"Rather than wasting time pursuing independence, something the first minister has no mandate for, his government must get on with the day job and tackle the out-of-control waiting lists in our NHS."

Natasha Asghar, Tory health spokesperson, said: "We welcome the first minister's commitment to bring these unacceptable waits down to zero, but ministers had previously promised to eliminate two-year waits 'within months' and failed to do so."

Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates said: "Plaid Cymru can't get their story straight on how long it'll take for the longest waits to be eradicated.

"Patients want to know when they'll have treatment, not a new vague target every month."

In the Radio Wales interview ap Iorwerth said that delivering his programme would be "challenging" given the financial climate.

"I'm not setting out to try to do easy things so that we can tick them off quickly. We are setting out to do ambitious things. I think that's really, really important.

"We think absolutely we have a programme here based on [Plaid's election] manifesto, building on the firm foundations of the first hundred days that we can deliver.

"But it will be incredibly challenging. I mean capital spending is going to be going down between now and the end of the decade."

Plaid's election manifesto promised to "work to make council tax fairer".

Ap Iorwerth declined to give specific promises for what he might do on council tax in the interview.

"There are a number of ways that it has been done in other parts of the UK. You can look at revaluation, you can look at different kinds of bands, you can look at how in time you can bring income tax into this.

"We haven't got the powers to do that right now."

Welsh Labour criticised Plaid last week after a government minister would not say whether the Flying Start early years programme would continue in its current form.

Ap Iorwerth said Flying Start "is the basis on which we are building" the government's childcare offer.

Ministers want to expand free childcare eventually to babies aged nine-months old.

"We are now building on Flying Start, [we're] going to be rolling out the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK."

Last week MS Sarah Cooper-Lesadd left Reform for Plaid.

Ap Iorwerth admitted that her decision was "unusual".

"It's a direction of travel that most people wouldn't expect," he said.

"I'm very comfortable that Sara Cooper-Lesadd has come on a genuine political journey."

He added: "Whether it's Sarah Cooper-Lessad or the wider Welsh electorate, I am always in the business of asking people, have a look at Plaid, and what we stand for, and what our vision is."