UK Government has become ‘increasingly estranged rival’ says Welsh minister
The UK Government has become an “increasingly estranged rival” rather than a partner to the Welsh Government, a Welsh cabinet minister has said.
Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said that the way the Welsh Government were treated by Westminster was “deeply unhelpful in normal times and unforgivable in this crisis”.
Writing in LabourList he accused the UK Government of years of “disinterest in regional prosperity” which has “only entrenched a form of economic centralism that is both alien to our competitors and corrosive to public trust”.
“As Mark Drakeford has argued, this is not about an obsession with the constitution but about standing up to a UK government that tells Wales: ‘You’ll get what you’re given’,” he said.
He added: “As the Welsh government’s economy minister, my focus is on securing better jobs and narrowing the skills divide to tackle poverty in a stronger Welsh economy. We badly need a partner in the form of the UK government – but for now we are stuck with an increasingly estranged rival.
“This is deeply unhelpful in normal times and unforgivable in this crisis. Even before the leadership contest, major decisions on the future of our economy were being ducked by Tory ministers while the facile gloss of ‘levelling up’ began to crack, leaving some of our poorest communities worse off.
“More than a decade of indecision and disinterest in regional prosperity has only entrenched a form of economic centralism that is both alien to our competitors and corrosive to public trust.
“The fresh offer of unfunded tax cuts, bumper bankers’ bonuses, a war on basic workers’ rights, and Mad Max-style ‘low regulation zones’ does nothing to show the world that the UK has learned anything from the last decade. It will do still less to signal that anyone in No 10 is thinking about struggling coastal towns or valleys.”
Vaughan Gething said that the Levelling Up fund had been used as a means of ensuring that Wales has “less say over less money.”
“Despite the promise to match the size of needs-based EU funds post-Brexit, Wales is set to be over £1.1bn worse off,” he added. “Tory ministers have even legislated to stop the Welsh government accessing these funds.”
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The definition of madness is trying and/ or doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
I fear Drakeford and now Vaughan Gething, may be afflicted.
What part of being in this ‘union’ do you like Gethin?
Well done for setting out the way Wales is treated. I recall when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister our Welsh Secretary claimed the Uk Gov. would overturn the Welsh Ministers decision not to go ahead with the M4 by pass on the Gwent levels and I believe the same happened when Liz Truss took office. The arrogance displayed that Welsh decisions taken in Wales and by an elected government can just be overturned by bullies is breathtaking. And do we really want an overheated SE Wales (Cardifff and Newport) -Bristol axis in Wales, aping the overheated and centralised London and… Read more »
So lead the movement for independence then and let’s get out of this union!
How can you stop this Vaughan Gething ?
The UK is an imperialistic regime.
The only way to for Wales home rule is independence. NOW !!!!
We can then join the EU (as the Ukraine hopes to) as a newly independent nation.
If England wants good relations with Wales and Scotland: We suggest this is through the EU !
This is blatant electioneering by Welsh Labour – They believe a UK Labour Govt will solve everything for Wales- unfortunately that is pure fantasy as we will see if Labour win in 2 yrs time.
Again I find the message sent out by our Gov mind blowing. They continue to tell us , as we know already, how badly done by London rule we are, and at the same time, continue to tell us how well we are doing from this union, and should stick with it. You either accept the Status Quo and continue to be left behind, or considered an after thought, or do something about it. But they moan about our situation, then tell us to accept it, and refuse an alternative. Madness.
Economy Minister Vaughan Gething cannot bemoan the English Conservative Government being, and I quote, “an increasingly estranged rival” rather than a constructive working partner when this is a political system he champions as a British Unionist. See Vaughan, If Wales were independent there would only be one government to deal with. The Welsh Government.
Just a thought. Has anybody written to Mr Gething suggesting that the Welsh Labour Party should back independence since the Union is not working at all for Wales? It would be most interesting to see if he sends a sensible reply.
If Welsh Labour are so aware of what the Westminster cabal are doing, why don’t they do something about it, or why does uk Labour stand by doing nothing, is wales really that worthless to London parties
Yes.
But Labour would still rather talk out of both sides of their mouth to mollify voters and stop people moving to Plaid, and hope that their masters in England will magically fix everything that leads to this situation and then will magically decide to treat them as equals, despite a record of not doing so. Cool. That’ll work. Meanwhile, independence is the obvious solution for anyone paying attention who has a spine, the desire to do anything but beg for scraps and plead for basic decency, and who isn’t playing personal career advancement games with our country’s wellbeing and existence.… Read more »
Unfortunately a change of regime in London will make no difference as witness the total disregard for Wales demonstrated by the London Labour careerists. I have too long a memory to look to London government of any declared persuasion for fairness and respect for our country. Independence is the only way. The socialists in ermine do not deserve our respect any more than the self serving Tories who would be back in a few short years of faux socialism anyway.