Shadow transport minister blasts Welsh Government for backtracking over HS2 funding

Emily Price

The shadow transport minister has insisted the Welsh Conservatives “always campaigned” for fair HS2 funding when the Tories were in power in Westminster and has slammed Labour for not doing the same.

Natasha Asghar accused Labour MSs of spending years “chirping away” for fair HS2 cash – until the party won the general election when the calls “conveniently fizzled out”.

The high speed rail line was classified as an England and Wales project by the previous Conservative government even though it does not cross the border.

The classification meant no extra funding was released to Wales by the Treasury – unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It was previously calculated that Wales is owed around £4bn from HS2, but the Welsh Government has recently revised the amount to £350m.

‘Utterly illogical’

Under the previous Conservatives government at Westminster, the former Finance Minister Rebecca Evans called on the Chancellor to provide Wales with its “£5 billion” share of HS2 funding.

At the time, the now Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said it was “utterly illogical” to designate HS2 as an England and Wales project and made calls for Wales to receive its “missing £4.6 billion of rail funding”.

However, during an interview with S4C in June, during the run up to the general election, Ms Stevens said that “HS2 is no longer in existence”.

‘Pipe down’

The Welsh Government says the new £350m estimate reflects the amount already “spent and committed” to the project.

The shadow transport minister says Labour ministers have been “given orders” by the new Labour UK Government to “pipe down”.

Ms Asghar said: “The Welsh Conservatives have always campaigned for HS2 consequential funding, even when we were in power at Westminster, yet it looks as though Labour are backtracking having been given orders from their London paymasters to pipe down.

“It would appear they have even done a swift U-turn on the amount Wales should be receiving, with the figure dropping from £4bn to just £350m virtually overnight.

“Unlike Labour, the Welsh Conservatives remain committed to fighting for Wales to get its fair share of funding. We were told two Labour Governments at either end of the M4 would be great news for our country, but the reality is we have been sold down the river.”

At odds

The Senedd Tories began calling for Wales to have its “fair share” of HS2 funding at a conference in 2022 – a call that was at odds with UK Government policy at the time.

The group’s leader, Andrew RT Davies, later said he would prefer the cash to go straight to Network Rail – rather than the Welsh Government who would “squander and fritter it“.

In 2023, all parties – including the Conservatives – backed a Plaid Cymru Senedd motion calling on the UK Government to reclassify the railway.

In the Senedd on Wednesday (October 9) the Tories accused the Welsh Government of “changing its tune” on its expectation of HS2.

Finance Minister Mark Drakeford said the government’s stance on the project had not changed.

He said: “Just to be clear, and as the First Minister said yesterday, there is no difference in our basic approach to this.

“HS2 was wrongly classified as an England-and-Wales project, when all the expenditure and all the benefit went to England.

“We should have had a consequential of that funding. I look forward to further discussions with our UK colleagues as to how that can be put right.”

Doubts

When Mr Drakeford was the First Minister, he accused the former Welsh Secretary David TC Davies of not standing up for Wales over HS2.

Mr Davies, now a Senedd advisor, argued that £1bn from a cancelled leg of HS2 would be used to electrify the North Wales Mainline – a project that did not materialise.

The rail scheme formed a central part of the Welsh Conservative’s general election manifesto.

But doubts were cast over the project when it emerged that Network Rail had not been given the green light from the Department of Transport that the funding was available.