Welsh and UK Governments at odds over St Davids Day bank holiday
Emily Price
The UK Government has said there are “no plans” to make St David’s Day a bank holiday despite the Welsh Government saying they want to be given the powers to make it happen.
Rules on bank holidays are not devolved to Wales – they are designated by Westminster.
Despite widespread calls, successive UK Governments have failed to grant Wales the power to establish March 1 as a bank holiday.
Saturday marks the first celebration of Wales’ patron saint since Labour won the general election in May.
Nation.Cymru contacted both Labour administrations at either end of the M4 and asked whether there were any future plans to designate St David’s Day an official bank holiday.
Powers
The comments we received appeared to be at odds.
In a statement, the Welsh Government told us they still want to have the power to designate the celebration of Dewi Sant as a public holiday.
A spokesperson said: “St David’s Day is widely celebrated across Wales and all over the world. Bank holidays are decided by the UK Government.
“We have previously asked the UK Government for the Senedd to have the powers to make St David’s Day a bank holiday and that continues to be our position.”
But the UK Government told us there are “no plans” for this.
No plans
A spokesperson said: “Wales and celebrations of Welsh culture are hugely important and the UK Government, including No10 and our embassies around the world, will be holding events to mark St David’s Day in the coming week.
“But the current pattern of public and bank holidays is well established and there are no plans to change it. While an additional permanent bank holiday may benefit some communities and sectors the cost to the economy is considerable.”
England and Wales currently have eight bank holidays a year while Scotland has nine and Northern Ireland has 10.
The Scottish Parliament made St Andrew’s Day a bank holiday in 2006 by passing the St Andrew’s Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act.
St Patrick’s Day has been considered a bank holiday in Ireland since 1903.
The Welsh Government has made several bids to follow suit.
Ignored
In 2000, the then National Assembly voted unanimously in favour of powers for Wales to designate its own bank holiday on March 1 – but the call was ignored by Westminster.
In 2014, First Minister Carwyn Jones wrote to the Secretary of State for Wales to seek legislative competence to make Wales’ national day a bank holiday, but the move was rebuffed.
In March 2022, a UK Parliament petition calling for St David’s Day to be recognised with a bank holiday was rejected by the then Tory government on the grounds that it would have a “considerable impact” on the UK’s economy.
Government estimates show that a single additional bank holiday in the UK could cost the economy around £2.4 billion.
During the 2019 general election, Labour promised to make four UK-wide bank holidays on the patron saint’s day of each of the home nations.
But the pledge was dropped from the party’s manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election which saw Sir Keir Starmer get the keys to No 10.
Rights
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts says Wales is being denied the same rights as Scotland.
She said: “St David’s Day is a celebration of Wales and Welshness – a symbol of our existence, just like St Andrew’s Day for Scotland. Yet, while Scotland gets official recognition, Wales is denied the same right.
“Plaid Cymru has long called for it to be a national holiday, but Westminster refuses. No surprise from the Tories, but now Labour is following suit. Their message to Wales is clear: indifference.
“Labour reckons that people in Wales won’t hear what Labour says in London. They take us for fools who’ll fall for cynical hypocrisy. Plaid Cymru will call this out on every occasion.”
Plaid Cymru MS Peredur Owen Griffiths said: “The previous Tory Government’s disdain for Wales was expected and their rejection of this call was no surprise.
“But a rejection from Labour when we were promised things would be different for Wales is unforgivable, and it makes it painfully obvious that Wales is at the bottom of their priorities.”
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Perhaps the King can issue an executive order
I am fed up of being treated as a second class person in my own country by a foreign government. Could we take the matter to the E C Of Human rights? On the basis of being treated as inferior to the Scots and Irish
Whilst I 100% agree with your sentiment the response to that will be “Oh but the English don’t have St George’s Day”, and that if the power was devolved to Wales then that would put pressure on the UK government to do the same for England. That is the crooks of the problem: Both Labour and the Tories are much less tolerant to English national identity than they are to the Scottish and Welsh ones, they would rather muddle Englishness with Britishness. They see English nationalism as more of a threat to the union, even though I think the opposite… Read more »
St David’s Day and St David’s Channel…
Cymru continues to have no real voice. Requests for HS2 money, Crown Estates control, March 1st a bank holidays, and numerous other issues, (remember the fight against a flooded Valley, for instance) all ignored. Westminster doesn’t give a toss. It never will. There is so much Cymru could do to improve things for it’s own people if only it were independent.
The vast majority of English MPs (and many English people) have inherited the profound colonialist mentality of their ancestors towards Scotland and, especially, Wales their first colony conquered 7½ centuries ago and virtually all unionist Welsh MPs ascribe to this mentality. As such they are able to maintain a disparaging, contemptuous and mean disposition towards the people of Wales as currently Wales poses no threat whatsoever to their precious and beloved United Kingdom. Until this situation changes Wales will get as little as possible as late as possible (if at all) from any UK government.
As I’ve stated in the past. Labour are as anti-Wales as the Conservative party were and still are. Welsh Labour were naive to think if & when UK Labour won Westminster power, a party who tried to scupper Welsh devolution in 1997 by the way, would be more sympathetic to the Senedd when it came to the simplest of devolution requested, such as the power to create a bank holiday seeing both Scotland & NI were afforded the right to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day ( a Welshman) and Saint Andrew’s Day ( an Israelite & Apostle) on march 17th &… Read more »
The solution is simple: The Senedd should legislate to make St Davids Day a Public Holiday and not a Bank Holiday. Whilst Bank Holidays are not devolved, there is nothing that suggests that Public Holidays are not.
Would there be a cost to Wales? I think not. There should be a St George bank Holiday as well as St Andrew and St Teilo.