Jo Stevens warns against Welsh independence, suggesting it could cause austerity
Plaid Cymru’s ambition of an independent Wales could drag the country back into austerity, Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens is expected to argue at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this weekend.
Independence would result in working-age adults in Wales paying more than £11,000 extra each year in tax to retain current level of public services, the Labour Party has claimed following analysis by the UK Government.
Referendum
Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has previously ruled out holding a referendum on Wales leaving the UK in the first term of a Plaid-led Welsh government.
But he has told the PA news agency it could happen within “our lifetime”.
Speaking at the conference on Sunday, Ms Stevens is expected to say both Labour governments in Wales and Westminster are placing the country at the centre of national renewal.
“Together as Labour governments we are setting out the path of renewal towards a fairer, more prosperous Wales, proud of our history and in control of our future,” she will add.
Choice
Ms Stevens is expected to point to the choice facing Welsh voters at the Senedd elections in May, arguing “Labour is the only party on the side of working people”.
The minister will also say: “If Plaid want to be taken seriously, they need to confirm whether they’re going to tax Welsh families into poverty, or cut public services to the bone.
“Labour has ended austerity in Wales. Don’t let Plaid impose it on Wales again.”
‘Talk Wales down’
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson responded: “It’s rather telling that Jo Stevens has opted to use her conference platform to talk Wales down at a time where more and more Labour voters are coming over to Plaid Cymru with our positive vision for our nation and belief in our potential.
“As Labour scramble for relevance, the people of Wales know that what is actually hitting them hard in the pocket is happening on Labour’s watch.
“The two-child benefit cap, the national insurance hike, winter fuel payment cuts, soaring energy bills and the lack of economic growth is a shameful record after a promise of change. After 26 years of failing to ensure national renewal for Wales, Labour really isn’t as good as it gets.
“The 2026 Senedd election is an opportunity to break free from Labour and vote for a progressive Plaid Cymru government that will deliver a fairer, more prosperous future for all. With Labour in disarray, it’s now a clear choice between Plaid’s vision or Reform’s division.”
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Oh dear she speaks again everything she says seems always a disaster
This woman shows why all MPs must be sacked. Total waste of time and money. Time for CYMRU RYDD! FRFEE WALES!
The worst Welsh Secretary since John Redwood (just) is certainly going to make a seismic difference to support for independence. Thanks for the boost Jo😂
So Joe wants to stand in the way of Wales becoming a normal country, regain its self respect, take its rightful place among the family of nations? And of course she’s not a nasty nationalist with her big big flag is she? No of course she isn’t. Listen Joe… I choose not to embrace British nationalism because it is assimilationist – i.e., the dominant group within it wants to control other spaces as well as its own. British nationalism has always done that, hence why it has justified imperialism, colonialism, occupying, stealing other people’s countries to fly the Union Jack… Read more »
So English Labour have done the figures and discovered Wales is too poor, I wonder who it is that keeps it that way, Westminster maybe? English Nationalist parties perhaps? with friends like this who need enemies, it becomes even clearer, if we want a Wales that will stand up for itself and its people we need Plaid Cymru, no more English parties and definitely not a bunch of far right fascist grifters like Reform.
Whatever this Westminster puppet says, do the opposite. I’m glad Wales is losing faith in Labour, although the jury is out on whether we as a nation will commit political suicide by backing Reform UK. I hope we will not listen to Farage a second time and instead hold him to account by asking the questions the bbc never seem to ask. On the other hand if Reform lose in Wales they will undoubtedly scream ‘fix’ and it will strengthen their call to abolish devolution if they ever get into power in London. A rock and a hard place comes… Read more »
Welsh independence would mean austerity for Wales, says Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens lol. Is this woman on the same planet? Wales has experienced nothing other than austerity. What a fool. Let me remind this selfservative that Welsh independence would be a release. We could be our own boss rather than your slave. Both Labour and the Conservatives are the reason why Wales continually languishes at the bottom, child poverty is rife, our resources usurped, country used abused and scarred. Poverty rules Wales okay. We’ve had 26 years of Welsh Labour missed opportunities. 14 years of Conservative idiocratic proxy rule. And… Read more »
Obviously we didn’t have austerity under successive Tory governments. It’s a bit like Russia saying they had to attack Ukraine because they were going to join NATO, when their aggression against Ukraine is what makes NATO membership so attractive in the first place.
We’ve had a decade and a half of austerity from Westminster govts. But its telling that Stevens is a attacking plaid and not the british fascists of Reform
Maybe she plans to join them.
She is obviously worried for her to bring up this subject.
And being and English colony has made us rich and wealthy?
What is she talking about!! All we seem to get from Westminster is perennial austerity. Jo Stevens is an absolute clown!!
Usual project fear by Labour, the irony of Liverpool- the city which used an act of parliament to drown Tryweryn being the location to seek to undermine the groundswell of pro independence. 25 years of Welsh Labour at the Senedd have not enriched Welsh lives ( Gordon Brown’s ‘Prudence’ seems to have bought a second home here).
Not having HS2 consequentials is causing austerity in Wales thanks to people like you Jo..
How many people have noticed austerity ending?
Perhaps it could, but like Brexit, it doesn’t necessarily make it a mistake. Despite naysayers, Brexit was not an unmitigated disaster, though the outcome was not as desirable as hoped for. The decision ultimately, is not an economic one, it is one based on values, morals and emotion. It would then be up to us, the people of Wales to decide what our economic future is and how to achieve our goals. This fundamental reality is what lost the remainers the referendum and it is this same reality that will also lose unionists the Welsh Independence referendum. Beating us down… Read more »
We’re already living in austerity, Jo Stevens. You’re making the case FOR independence.
Sorry, Jo, when did we ever get out of austerity in Wales? Must have blinked and missed it. As a constituent of yours I’ve told you face to face how appalled I am at your performance as Starmer’s Viceroy in Wales, rather than fighting for Wales in Westminster, your attempts to undermine the Welsh government on Crown Estate, transfer of justice to Wales, fair railway funding, etc, etc. Undermining your own Labour government in Wales? Ministerial status gone to your head or what? You are an utter disgrace.
Why do you keep deleting my posts? I’ve supported you from the start but will be cancelling my sub tomorrow unless you respond.
The positions of Welsh Secretary is now redundant post-devolution. They are not Wales’ voice in Westminster they are Westminster’s voice over Wales.
If you want to keep the union together then stop belittling our nation, and give it the respect and dignity it deserves.
Talk is cheap and politicians will say whatever helps their individual cause, in her case trying to sustain a disunited kingdom of countries that do not trust the one country in charge. Fact of the matter is Ireland now being a vibrant independent country, but we do need to avoid the near century of them seeing generations leave the country for employment and a career, and yes, they did suffer austerity while they didn’t do it right. We simply need to prove how we can be that vibrant independent country, rather than just a refuge for the spiv society she… Read more »
Did she say ‘austerity’? I thought Cymru had always been in austerity!! Surely conditions couldn’t get worse. The woman knows absolutely nothing.
Is any organisation writing to UN? I think Scotland just submitted reasons to become independent:
“Labour has ended austerity in Wales …. “
Seriously?!
When …. where? Is there some bit of Wales, entirely unknown to me, where the decade and a half long shadow of austerity is now wholly absent?!
Obviously, there is no direct quotes here from her speech, and as she hasn’t done it, we are just utterly speculating on what’s in it.
But I suppose if she did say austerity has ended, she’ll be right as virtually all WG budget is increasing, which is different to the 2010s. Whether it’s increasing by enough to cover the increasing need for public services (aged, send, inflation) is a different matter.
How are you defining austerity? Budgets that are shrinking in actual pounds and pence, budgets that are shrinking in real terms, budgets that have not yet returned to pre-austerity levels or simply budgets that don’t support the expected standard of public services?
The economic definition generally refers to reduction in funding, I believe. So if she did say what the article presumes she will say (even though it hasn’t been said), she is technically correct . Clearly problems persist as the UK has increasing needs and persistent inflation (which no parties has a plan how to address), but the underlying expenditure is increasing
That would depend on the budget date they are starting from and have real term increases been realised on that original budget?
Well exactly. If you took the date labour entered office to the dates in the spending review (up to 2028), then yes, there’s been non or won’t be austerity!
Whatever she might either have directly said or indirectly implied, the day by day reality which both I and my local community experience is that government-directed austerity still continues, undiminished under this Labour government in like manner as it was imposed under previous Conservative ones.
Maybe it might get better over time as a consequence of the Starmer government’s initiatives, but as yet I see no sign that anything of that sort is actually happening.
Poor old Jo piping up with some drivel just cos she thinks that makes her boss happy. Functionally on a par with a chocolate tea pot but at least the latter might be edible!
How has the REPUBLIC of Ireland managed to survive outside the ravaging control of the British Empire for over a century? If Jo Stevens was approached for comment – NO RESPONSE and that’s because she knows damn well she is peddling a LIE. Red Tory.
Ireland’s tax-haven status is what allows them to use American multi-national companies to support their economy. Before that, Ireland extracted huge handouts from Brussels, because it was an economic basket-case more aligned with the Mediterranean nations than North West Europe. Before that, Ireland was very poor, to the extent that a large percentage of their workforce emigrated to the UK or US to find work.
Which part of this do you suggest Wales should aspire to replicate?
Wales is still in austerity, nothing has changed. England is still in austerity and there are many other countries in austerity. The real cause of austerity is INEQUALITY. There has been and still is a devaluation of money in relation to real assets. Gold, silver, land, houses, stocks and shares have all out performed the value of currencies. This is why there are billionaires while the vast majority of people are struggling to even live. All currencies have fallen in value over the decades, inflation is the other side of currency devaluation. The £ has fallen a bit more than… Read more »
Loyalist Jo reckons freedom for Cymru will cost me £220 per week. The Eurosceptics told me that Brexit would put an extra £150 or more into my pocket. What is it about these British nationalists who seem to work out economic forecasts on the back of a fag packet. Not sure! Perhaps we should ask a UK patriot who is reliable, honest and transparent. Someone like Nathan Gill.
Secretary against Wales.
She conveniently forgets her HS2 money backtracking. Before being elected and in an effort to win votes against the Tories because they denied Wales that money she claimed Wales should get the full £4 billion. Within weeks of winning the election that had become £350 million. Was that her actual opinion or was she under instruction from her lords and masters in Westminster. In my opinion she cowed down to Kier and Rachel. I’ve ignored everything she’s said since then.
Jo Stevens is no better than the English Nationalist Party and its supporters that want to Abolish Cymru once and for all. Steven’s and Welsh voters who vote for Faridge and Anderson are traitors to this great nation
Judging from many of her past statements Jo Stevens is a committed English Nationalist and ultra-Unionist. She is delighted with the status quo, i.e., Wales being ruled and controlled by a Parliament almost totally dominated by a massive majority of English MPs (84%) in perpetuity. In increasing numbers the people of Wales are not endeared to this prospect.
The thing people need to remember is that Wales must be the poorest part of the UK to hold the UK together. If the north of England sees that living standards, life opportunities and public services are all significantly better in Wales there’ll be an uprising and that can’t be allowed to happen. So stop asking for tools, rules and fair funding to improve the Welsh economy and be grateful for the crumbs that just about keep Bob Geldof away. Because that’s the union deal.
Pure drivel as when Wales becomes independent there will be large reparation payment and asset settlement from UK to Wales, Wales does not have to pay England for the standing military or Foreign Services and other centralised services we can provide our own at a level commensurate to our needs, aspirations and ambitions.
Unlike the financial heaven utopia that our captors provide now??
This is the Odious women who when shadow Welsh Sec said Wales should have the billions for H S 2 just like Scotland and Northern Ireland move foreword when Liebour come to Power no we are not entitled this women has more faces than BIG BEN she is Welsh and a member of an English Nationalist Party same as other A Ms and M P,s from Liebour and Tory and Reform all English Nationalist parties they will have to decide shortly if they are WELSH or ENGLISH the line has been drawn in the sand
Is talking down Wales’s potential a vote-winner?
Sorry, but it sure feels like Wales is experiencing austerity at the moment and that can be laid firmly at the door of successive Conservative and Labour Westminster governments. The definition of madness comes to mind.
Labour’s patronising, tone deaf and self-aggrandising attitude towards working class voters is exactly what pushes some of us into the arms of Reform. Not me personally, I wouldn’t trust Farage and co. to tell me the time of day.