Labour minister mocked after making ‘laughable’ Welsh rail investment claims in new year message
Emily Price
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens has been mocked following an end of year message in which she hailed Labour’s “significant investment” in Welsh railways throughout 2025 and pledged further upgrades in 2026.
Stevens said the government in Westminster had delivered “transformative investment” for Wales over the last 12 months with measures to “grow the economy, create jobs and tackle the cost of living”.
The Labour minister highlighted £445 million announced in the Chancellor’s spending review in June for Welsh rail following decades of underfunding.
Earlier this month, the UK Government confirmed it would use some of the allocated cash to back plans for a £140 million revamp of Cardiff Central station in a bid to support passenger growth and reduce overcrowding.
The plans will see the development of new stations, safer level crossings and line upgrades to follow.
£78m will be provided by the UK Department for Transport for the project while £40m will come from the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal and £21m will be provided by the Welsh Government.
In Stevens new year message, she said: “Wales has two governments working together to deliver the priorities of working people and families across the country and the benefits are beginning to be seen.”
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds called for the Welsh Secretary to commit to restoring Wales’ “missing HS2 millions”.
Dodds said: “2026 is the year in which Welsh voters can tell Jo Stevens and the rest of the Labour Party that they will no longer settle for having one hand tied behind their back.
“If Jo Stevens and the Labour Party are really committed to a bright 2026 for Wales then they should make a New Year’s resolution to restore the missing HS2 millions, devolve the crown estate, and reform the Barnett formula.”
Row
It comes following an ongoing row over the designation of major rail projects such as HS2, the Oxford to Cambridge rail line and Northern Powerhouse rail.
The three schemes have all been classified as “England and Wales” projects by the UK Government.
Opposition politicians say this means Wales has missed out on billions of pounds in consequential funding.
The UK Government says these claims are untrue.
In recent weeks, several Labour Senedd Members signed a strongly letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer raising significant concerns about his government’s failure to move forward with plans to devolve further powers to Wales.
Since Labour’s general election win in 2024, the party’s MSs have expected the UK Government to press ahead with reforming the outdated Barnett Formula and for rail infrastructure, policing and justice powers to be devolved to Wales.
However, this has not happened.
‘Neglect’
The Welsh Secretary’s new year message also nodded to the announcement that Wylfa on Anglesey would be the site of the UK’s first small nuclear reactors.
It’s hoped the project will create thousands of jobs during construction and operation, whilst helping to make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
Cost of living
It was backed by the announcement of two AI Growth Zones for Wales and by £10 million to support jobs in the semiconductor cluster along the M4 in south Wales.
Stevens said the UK Government had also taken steps to tackle the cost of living crisis with a £150 saving on household energy cap, an increase to the national minimum wage and the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
She added that Starmer’s government had ensured public services across Wales were better funded after the Welsh Government received “another record budget settlement” in 2025.
Stevens said: “We promised new jobs and economic growth for people across Wales after more than a decade of neglect and this UK Government has delivered generational investment – from new nuclear, to AI and rail.
“The new funding for Wales’s semiconductor industry and for the continued transformation of Port Talbot shows we are investing in Wales’s industrial future and the high skilled jobs and growth it will bring.
“People across Wales will have more money in their pockets as a result of our measures to help with the cost of living which we are making sure that the Welsh Government is funded properly and fairly to spend on its priorities like the NHS and schools.”
The Welsh Secretary concluded her new year round up saying the UK Government would continue to deliver for Welsh communities throughout 2026, “building on the transformative investment of 2025”.
Job losses
Two freeports in Anglesey and south west Wales will become operational next year and the UK Government says it will continue to provide support for steelworkers in Port Talbot affected by job losses as a result of Tata Steel shutting its traditional blast furnaces and moving to greener electric arc furnaces.
Stevens said: “We are now achieving our ambition to bring positive change to the lives of people and communities across Wales. But we have only just begun and we will move even further and faster in 2026.
“As we look ahead to the new year, the UK Government remains focused on delivering for Welsh communities, creating jobs, driving investment and ensuring that the benefits of economic growth are felt by people in every part of Wales.
“And outside politics I especially hope to see Wales qualify for another major tournament and head to North America for the World Cup this summer.
“There is a bright 2026 ahead for Wales as we continue our work to unleash opportunity and bring a decade of national renewal.”
Mocked
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Mims Davies branded the “invisible” minister’s claims “laughable” and reminded Stevens that “April Fools’ Day is four months away”.
Davies said: “In just 15 months in office, Labour has caused unemployment to rocket in Wales, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ second disastrous budget is destroying 1,000 jobs every single day, while some working farmers are still set to be hit by the impact of their pernicious family farm tax affecting our food security.
“On top of this, their proposed tourism tax threatens countless more jobs as the hospitality sector is under strain like never before.
“The ambitious programme delivered by the last UK Conservative Government — including half a billion pounds to safeguard and future proof Port Talbot Steelworks, cuts to National Insurance, key major Welsh investment, and the abolition of Severn Bridge tolls — is now being unravelled by a Labour government determined to tax to the hilt.
“In just 5 months, the people of Wales will in the Senedd election have a chance to fix part of the problem by kicking out this exhausted Labour Welsh Government, after they have mismanaged Wales for 26 years.
“The Welsh Conservatives, unlike all the other parties, actually have a bold, credible and ambitious plan to deliver for Wales, by tackling wanton pet project spending and boldly bringing forward academies, scrapping business rates and stamp duty, building an M4 relief road and many more exciting initiatives which will soon be outlined.”
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Probably one of the most useless Welsh secretary we have had.
Probably ? Arguing for the HS2 money from the Conservatives but then, when in Government, accepting the pathetic £445 million in the budget and then to have the gall to call that ‘transformational investment’ is positively traitorous. And where is even that small amount of money going ? Firstly they announced immediately after the budget that £320 million of it would go toward new stations serving Cardiff. And now we hear some of the rest is going toward the refurb of Cardiff Central Station. Which will leave virtually pennies for the rest of Wales. Why on earth are they so… Read more »
Well said
John Redwood is still number one after cancelling the relief road and sending the money back to Whitehall just because everyone laughed at his singing.
Tbf, if Kier Starmer hadn’t been elected PM, I think Labour (particularly ‘Welsh’ Labour) would have been in with a good shout of re-election, the team isn’t ‘great’ for sure but until Kier Starmer, they were banging the drum for Wales as good as anyone else. If Eluned Morgan (and I didn’t like her at first) decided to head up her own ‘Labour’ party tomorrow… I would seriously struggle to decide between Plaid and Eluned’s Labour. At the moment I’m solidly Plaid due to Kier. It isn’t like Eluned hasn’t been caught giving the MPs a good telling off for… Read more »
I’m old enough to remember John Redwood (who I had to meet regularly when working in a different department), William Hague and David Hunt (who he? most will wonder). Then there’s the more recent Tory attempts. Even so….. In her own alternative reality it seems
I have met Jo Stevens on a litter pick and I was hoping she would prove to be a more proactive Welsh secretary fighting for Wales. Sadly, she turned out be quite the opposite.
Lee Waters, Labour’s MS for Llanelli and a former Welsh government minister, has on several occasions described her as the most anti-devolution Welsh secretary since the late George Thomas.
W
Beggars belief, the hypocracy of this MP, showing where her priorities lie. She must think that we’re all sub normal if we’re to believe her nonsense.
The Welsh Secretary of state was set up to represent Cymru in Westminster, not to push unjust English policies on to Wales.
A traitor to the Nation and time to scrap the position of Secretary of State for Wales.
Agreed, the position of Welsh Secretary is outdated and unnecessary post-devolution.
It’s better to think of the Secretary of State as a traitor. It’s not her job to represent Wales in all fairness, it’s to keep the Prime Minister up to date with information that the PM is interested in about Wales. In short, she’s the PM’s lackey and her ‘interests’ lie in serving the Westminster government. That’s her job description (and she’s sticking to it!)
What is she for?
Herself, and thats about it.
She insults Welsh people when she makes statements like that does she think we are gullible and stupid when in opposition she stated Wales should have the money for H S 2 now in government denied us also do not forget when Labour minister in the treasury Bristol M P with surname Jones insulted Wales by standing up in Parliament saying WE SHOULD BE GRATEFULL FOR WHAT WE GET that is a real insult
I’ve already emailed Tonia Antoniazzi to say what I think about Jo Stephens. Can I suggest the rest of you email your MP as well about the injustices ?
Since England’s conquest of Wales in 1282AD, the English Establishment has inherited the colonial mindset/mentality of its succession of predecessors towards Wales. Currently this is clearly demonstrated by the extremely grudging attitude of the UK Labour Government towards devolution and its recent attempts to even undermine Wales’ devolution settlement. To her shame, Jo Stephens is in the vanguard of this tendency that places her very firmly within the English Establishment – no doubt the reason why PM Starmer appointed her as so-called Secretary of State for Wales
Dear Ms. Stevens. Please list on here what you have actually done for the benefit of Cymru and the Cymry since you took up office. Also, please list what you intend to do for the benefit of Cymru and the Cymry.
She thinks people are idiots that are amazed by big numbers.
Making out that £445m over 10 years is anything other than chicken feed while English projects are receiving billions over half that time.
I can’t wait for her to be ripped to shreds by a Plaid Government in May.
The annual amount is less than is being spent on refurbishing Leeds Station (£46.1m). Not that I begrudge money going to northern England but it tells you the scale of the funding for Wales
And it’s just back pay for Conservative funding shortfalls. There’s nothing new from Labour, they’ve just cleared the debt while others get Labour’s actual spending cash.
I wish UK politicians would avoid making statements that are effectively ‘fake news’. Wales is getting a tiny proportion of the railway funding it is owed, uniquely disadvantaged in comparison to the other nations of the UK. We should leave re-stating false & misleading claims to the MAGA crowd; our electorate deserve better.
Jo ‘The Gaslighter’ Stevens. No desire to do better for Wales. Just an awful Brit Nat career politician trying to ensure she gets a place in the House of Lords when she’s inevitably voted out at the next election.