Opinion
Westminster is not working for Wales
Beth Winter, Labour MP for Cynon Valley
We can see it from the UK government defining English rail projects as ‘England & Wales’ so they don’t have to send billions of pounds in consequentials to Wales.
We can see it in the refusal to fund the hundreds of millions needed to make coal tips safe on South Wales Valleys hillsides.
We can see it in how former European funding has been replaced with pale imitations, short-changing Wales to the tune of over £1bn.
In my short time in the House of Commons, it has often felt like Westminster is actively working against Wales. In doing so it jeopardises the very future of devolution.
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Archaic
The British state is one of the most centralised and archaic in the Western world. There is a democratic black hole with political power and control tightly held by the UK Parliament and the continuation of an unelected House of Lords and monarchy.
And in recent years we’ve witnessed an unprecedented series of power grabs from a Conservative UK Government seemingly determined to trample all over the devolution settlement which would otherwise let Wales approach things differently.
The Conservatives have driven through a series of laws that conflicts with the position of Welsh Government and the people of Cymru. From the Internal Market Act (2020) which undercuts standards set by Welsh Government, to the Strikes (Minimum Service Level) Act (2023) which undermines Welsh Government’s management of industrial relations in Welsh public services.
It is little wonder that the Welsh Government withheld legislative consent from both Acts.
This re-centralising of power is part-and-parcel of the prevailing economic orthodoxy. The shift in recent years towards a more centralised state imposed from Westminster has been used to stifle regional and local divergence where there might be a different approach to the provision of public services. In doing so it secures the preservation of the status quo and enables neoliberalism to continue to thrive.
It has aided the expansion of the free market and the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many, gutting public services of funds and funnelling public money into private profit. And we in Cymru are left suffering the consequences.
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The Future of Devolution
The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales’ (Comisiwn) final report concluded that ‘the status quo is not a viable option for providing stability and prosperity for Wales’.
This report marks a landmark moment in the history of devolution. It also sets out 10 recommendations to protect the existing devolution settlement. If we are to protect devolution, yet alone enhance it, UK parliament cannot be allowed to continue riding roughshod over the Senedd.
I support the Commission’s proposals as a step in the right direction as this would secure a duty of cooperation and parity of esteem between the four UK governments.
But devolution is not just about political power, it is about economic power. The constitutional debate must be situated in class-based politics and social justice.
It is only by doing this that it becomes possible to understand the current system but crucially identify opportunities for reform that will advance a move to a fairer, greener Cymru that will benefit the many, not the few. The Barnett formula doesn’t work for Cymru and must be replaced with a fair, needs based funding system.
The most important proposals contained in the Comisiwn report are the three “viable option[s] for the governance of Wales in the long term” - (i) enhanced devolution; (ii) a federal UK structure and (iii) independence.
The report is correct not to recommend which of these three options should be adopted because it is for the people of Cymru to decide.
That decision-making process will be one that the next First Minister of Wales must play a leading role in.
The Next First Minister
The two leadership candidates in the race to become the next First Minister of Cymru have expressed support for devolution which, to different degrees, they state should be extended. Their positions generally correspond with that of UK Labour and the proposals of the Gordon Brown report.
The vital report cannot be consigned to history and forgotten. The candidates’ stated commitment to devolution are welcome, but there is little sense of the appetite needed to drive this conversation forward.
Cymru needs the power to manage our services as we see fit and a system of government funding which puts people before profit and enables us to eradicate child poverty, run a 21st century health service, and provide an integrated transport system.
The status quo cannot and will not deliver that.
So my message to the Leadership Candidates is this; Cymru is at a critical juncture, this is not the time for tinkering.
The next First Minister must step up and lead a national conversation about the options proposed by the Comisiwn as we seek to build a truly democratic, fair, just and green future for all in Cymru.
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