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Labour's shadow Welsh Secretary has said he will not be afraid to publicly criticise Labour Welsh ministers' delivery of public services if he is in government at Westminster.

Owen Smith rejected accusations from opposition parties that relationships between senior Labour figures in London and Cardiff had been too cosy.

Mr Smith said: "Where there needs to be hard words there will be hard words."

He told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales the relationship was one of "critical friendship".

In the first in a series of election interviews with Welsh political parties, he said: "What we need in Wales, what the Welsh people want and deserve is a partnership between a government in Westminster and a government in Wales both working for the good of Wales working to improve public services together, not criticising one another.

"There is a big difference between having an attitude whereby what you want is collaboration and partnership and where all the Tories want is for Wales to be castigated by them in order to score political points."