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Opinion

No more shortchanging Wales

07 May 2025 4 minute read
Peter Hain

Peter Hain

Even under the last Labour government I was frustrated for seven years as Welsh Cabinet Minister that Whitehall always put Scotland first, Wales second.

And First Minister Eluned Morgan is absolutely correct to demand of Keir Starmer that this must change.

People in Wales must be able to feel a real difference from having two Labour governments working together: crucially important for the Welsh Parliament/Senedd elections next year when Scotland votes at the same time.

And especially when Reform’s surge in last week’s elections in England threatens to upend Wales’ progressive self-government next May.

Tory austerity

After 14 years of savage Tory austerity, last autumn Labour gave Wales the biggest increase in its grant from the HM Treasury in more than two decades, enabling Eluned Morgan’s government to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into the NHS, and bring down waiting lists in Wales.

The number of people waiting for more than two years is the lowest it has been for four years and in the last month alone fell by a quarter. Outpatient waiting lists are now a third shorter than they were in 2022.

Extra Labour funding has also enabled Eluned Morgan’s government to invest in more homes, better transport, and more jobs.

But as her important speech insists, that is not enough. Wales has been shortchanged in many ways for decades.

The Barnett formula determining how much devolved nations get from the UK Treasury is based largely on population when Wales is poorer and sicker, mainly because its miners once powered the rest of the UK.

Scandal

The biggest scandal was Tory Prime Minister David Cameron slyly defining the mega billion HS2 rail investment as England ‘and’ Wales when not an inch has been or will be built in Wales. So, Scotland got a share of the extra millions, Wales zilch.

When the Parliament was recalled over Easter to save steel in Scunthorpe, why not Port Talbot, people in Wales asked?

Eluned Morgan is absolutely right to demand under the Labour UK Government partnership between both ends of the M4 is two-way, not one-way.

She is also right to speak up for traditional Welsh Labour heartlands where around half of adults are on the highest level of disability benefit – a legacy of mining and other heavy industry. Yes they need welfare reforms to get new skills and jobs, but not punishing benefit cuts.

Since I delivered extra powers in the 2006 Government of Wales Act, more Metropolitan Mayors in England have enjoyed more powers, and the Welsh Government must not be left behind.

Crown Estate

Last October my amendment in the Lords to back Eluned Morgan and give Wales more say over the Crown Estate which has control over rich Welsh resources in the sea and elsewhere, was backed by UK Labour, by Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems – proof of partnership working in both Westminster and the Senedd. But as she rightly demands that needs to go much further: if the Scottish parliament gets all the millions from its Crown Estate reserves, why not the Senedd?

Past profits from Welsh coal, oil, water and wind largely left Wales for company owners elsewhere. Now Eluned Morgan is rightly insisting that Wales benefits from its rich resources of renewable energy from the sea, wind and sun, as well as from an impressive compound semi-conductor sector and the reserves of the rare minerals needed to supply it.

‘Red Welsh Way’

What she called the ‘Red Welsh Way’ should embody values which UK Labour shares.

She will continue to put Nation before Party and shout when she thinks the UK Government has got it wrong, demanding cooperation between two Labour governments to deliver real improvements for Wales.

In turn showing to voters in Scotland and metropolitan England the benefits of Labour administrations working together in robust partnership.

But under the Senedd’s new electoral system no party is likely to win outright. Eluned Morgan has demonstrated by her speech that she is the best person to lead Welsh voters in these turbulent times by working in partnership with Westminster and partnership across the Welsh Senedd parties.

Voting instead for a Putin-supporting, Trump-echoing, Reform-led Senedd would sabotage Wales’ future. Voting for Plaid Cymru could allow Reform to supplant Labour as the latest polls in Wales show.

Eluned Morgan’s unique parliamentary experience in Westminster, in Europe and in Wales, together with her upbringing in the biggest Welsh council-estate, make her uniquely fit to be re-elected as Welsh First Minister – and her big speech vividly demonstrates why.

Lord Hain was Secretary of State for Wales and MP for Neath


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Stephen Thomas
Stephen Thomas
2 days ago

Its all well and good blaming Cameron for HS2 but all the labour MPs from Cymru supported him. And wasnt it you who denied Cymru the power over water and power?

Valley girl
Valley girl
2 hours ago
Reply to  Stephen Thomas

The MP’s report to Westminster. We should campaign to remove them on Wales as they only cause harm.

Neil Anderson
Neil Anderson
2 days ago

Labour is a busted flush. The Starmer-Morgan cabal has nothing to offer Cymru. That pesky fly Farage brings nothing new to the table, just more of the same. Unionism has had its day. Time to say goodbye (Bocelli). The problem is the model – neo-liberal capitalism. It is built on a tissue of lies, logical slides, implausible assumptions and mendacity. Murphy says it well… https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05/06/neoliberal-economics-is-a-work-of-fiction/ If you only ever read one article on economics, this should be it… Plaid can help move our country to an economy based on meeting needs – a good place to start! Their proposed child… Read more »

Dr Dewi Evans
Dr Dewi Evans
2 days ago

It’s very noble of Lord Peter Hain to come out batting on behalf of his fellow House of Lords comrade Baroness Eluned Morgan – not that cricket metaphors and Peter make comfortable soulmates. One only has to digest the rest of his article to appreciate its mea culpa, Labour’s catastrophic governance of Wales over a century, not only during its rule in Cardiff. If Labour policies were successful in achieving social justice, equality of opportunity, and all those good things they keep banging on about, one would expect an improvement in the overall wealth and quality of life of Labour… Read more »

Dewi Davies
Dewi Davies
2 days ago

Peter Hain.Wasnt this the very same bloke who was laughing and joking whilst opening a food bank in his own constituency?Shameful.

David Richards
David Richards
2 days ago

“Voting for Plaid Cymru could allow Reform to supplant Labour as the latest polls in Wales show”….its Keir Starmer’s UK Labour govt that’s aping Reform’s anti- immigrant policies and rhetoric. PS. the baroness long ago forgot about ‘council estates’.

Chris Hale
Chris Hale
2 days ago

I am afraid that it is a little late in the day for Lord Hain to start trying to drum up support for the Labour Party in Wales. For too long, Labour have seen Wales as a reservoir of useful voters who will support them whatever, and whose needs and wishes can be ignored. There has long been an appetite for social justice as a result of centuries of exploitation by ruthless employers, which led to the development of Chartism and trade unionism. People want control of their lives and futures and self determination in their governance at local and… Read more »

Brychan
Brychan
2 days ago

Hain says that “voting for Plaid Cymru could allow Reform to supplant Labour as the latest polls in Wales show”. Actually, the latest polls show that voting Labour will give Reform an edge in and that to stop Reform the vote has to be Plaid Cymru. Not only fending off Reform but also fending off the worst of Labour Party abandonment, some say punishment, of Wales.

Annibendod
Annibendod
2 days ago

Window dressing. If you genuinely believe what you said Peter, you’d join Plaid Cymru and seek an end to the imperial UK.

Cwm Rhondda
Cwm Rhondda
2 days ago

Lord Hain, are you pro or anti Welsh Independence?

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
2 days ago

We were frustrated with Mr Hain’s insistence that ‘LCOs’ were “good for Wales”.

John Ellis
John Ellis
13 hours ago

Eluned Morgan has at last expressed discontent around the Westminster Labour government’s attitude towards Wales and the Cardiff Bay administration, and now Peter Hain seems to be joining in.

Am I overly cynical in suspecting that as we’re now less than a year from the election, they’re thinking that possibly it might not go too well for Labour when polling day comes?!

Erisian
Erisian
4 hours ago

Voting for Plaid Cymru could allow Reform to supplant Labour as the latest polls in Wales show?
That’s a bold and deeply suspicious claim.
Which latest polls – how do they show that?
[Show your workings]

Valley girl
Valley girl
2 hours ago

We have a great team in Cardiff Bay and I only hope they come to their senses and split with Labour England and form a new part with Plaid to set Wales on the road to independence. No more bickering.

Jinni Jinna
Jinni Jinna
9 minutes ago

Project fear – the demonisation of Plaid has started ffs – Welsh Labour at the Senedd is the epitome of moribund politics- Voting Labour for the senedd will continue our stagnation. With Rhun Ap Iorwerth as First Minister all of Wales will soar with real positive change – long overdue with over 25 years of welsh labour fannying about

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