WALES:Former Welsh secretary of state Paul Murphy has urged his Labour colleagues in the Welsh Assembly to reject a proposed coalition deal with Plaid Cymru.
Mr Murphy, who is also a former Northern Ireland secretary, told BBC Wales's Dragon's Eye programme Labour should instead continue in a minority administration in Cardiff.
The historic powersharing deal has been agreed in principle between Labour first minister Rhodri Morgan and Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones. It is due to be endorsed by Labour delegates at a special conference later today and by Plaid at a similar meeting tomorrow. The deal will put nationalists and republicans in government in all three devolved parts of the United Kingdom.
Mr Murphy accepted the coalition deal was likely to go ahead but said he did not believe it to be in Labour's best interests. "There is no point in pretending the party is in any way united on this issue," said Mr Murphy. "There is considerable discomfort right across Wales about this."
The Welsh development comes at an interesting moment in the gathering constitutional debate across the UK and ahead of any significant test of relations between prime minister Gordon Brown and Scotland's nationalist first minister Alex Salmond.
Introducing his consultative paper on the future governance of Britain on Tuesday, Mr Brown resisted Conservative pressure for "English-only" votes on English legislation by MPs at Westminster as an answer to the devolution settlements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
At the same time Mr Brown signalled his interest in ways of pulling the UK together in the light of devolution. Foreign office minister and Welsh MP Kim Howells also voiced his opposition to the proposed "One Wales" deal between Labour and Plaid, warning it will "help nationalists to the gates of independence".
Plaid's national executive backed the pact with Labour after ending talks with the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.