Ruth Jones

The hon. Member is quite right; we are always better together. As a Gaelic colleague, I welcome him to this debate today and I look forward to his contributions later on. St David was known for his austere lifestyle, surviving on a vegetarian diet of mostly leeks and water. I am not necessarily advocating that today for all here, but his resilience has come to symbolise Wales’s resilience in the face of social challenge, including inequality and social disadvantage. Wales has strong communities that are rooted in the place where they live. This is a legacy of our rich working-class heritage—a pride in place founded upon pride in work. Wales played a leading role in Britain’s last industrial revolution as a centre of heavy industry, including mining, quarrying, smelting and steelmaking. This was recognised by our communities. In continuing this place-based story, I welcome the Government’s focus on restoring pride in place and driving investment into our former industrial communities. Welsh councils are set to benefit from £280 million of Pride in Place funding, alongside over £30 million of capital funding to invest in Wales’s public realm. While manufacturing might have defined Wales’s past, it will also shape its future. Wales is still a proud manufacturing economy, and manufacturing continues to be the biggest contributor to the Welsh economy in terms of output, employing over 150,000 people. This makes Wales an outlier in the UK and an international leader in advanced manufacturing. Whether it be aerospace, automotive, defence or electronics, we know that Wales is leading the way. I am extremely proud that my constituency of Newport West and Islwyn is an exemplar in many of those industries of the future. Duffryn is home to the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster, which includes Vishay, IQE, Catapult and KLA. Just across the road, Airbus is innovating cyber-security solutions for aerospace, and Safran provides deluxe seats and even beds for airlines. In Blackwood, General Dynamics is busy outfitting the future of Britain’s mechanised defence forces, and in Marshfield, Microsoft and Vantage are building a number of data centres as part of the new South Wales AI growth zone. As Wales positively embraces the fourth industrial revolution, I welcome the efforts by the Welsh and UK Governments to address the adverse impacts of the last. As a former physiotherapist, I have treated miners with lung conditions such as pneumoconiosis and silicosis, so I know how profound and lasting the impacts have been. The human and environmental impacts have been great and long-lasting, and we are not going back there. In Islwyn, I am proud to represent a former mining area that will greatly benefit from the Government’s decision in the autumn Budget to return £2.3 billion to former British Coal staff. Those pensions are long overdue and I welcome their return. Though the pits may be gone, the bonds of solidarity and community spirit embedded within Islwyn are still clear for all to see. A prominent example of that is the Cefn Fforest Miners Institute. First built in 1935 and funded by contributions from local coalminers, it has been lovingly restored by the village. It reopened in November after being closed for 15 years and now acts as a renewed hub for the community, hosting shows and events. At the same time, I pay tribute to the fantastic Cross Keys silver band, which was formed in 1902 by the local mining community and is still going strong today. I would recommend any concerts they provide—really, I would. I welcome the strong, co-ordinated response by the UK and Welsh Governments in putting forward a record combined £230 million over the next four years to improve coal tip safety. The new multi-year approach being taken by both Governments was much needed. The Welsh Affairs Committee has been looking in detail at prisons, probation and rehabilitation in Wales. That is an area of significant public policy concern in Wales because we have the highest incarceration rate in western Europe, with 177 Welsh residents in prison per 100,000 of the population. The Committee was pleased to receive oral evidence from the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, who I know is committed to driving forward work to address reoffending and improve our prison system. As part of our inquiry, we have looked at a wide range of issues, including prison management, housing and education support, as well as the provision of healthcare and services in the Welsh language. The Committee has also considered the specific experiences of women in the criminal justice system, but of particular concern has been the ongoing management of issues at HMP Parc following the 17 deaths there in 2024. We will continue to scrutinise the working arrangements there to ensure the safety of inmates and staff alike. Despite our inquiry being ongoing, the Committee has already had some early wins, with the Ministry of Justice agreeing to our request for the publication of an annual Wales-specific justice dataset, the first of which was published in September. I will close by talking of the future and the big choices facing the people of Wales in just a few months’ time. In May, Wales faces a profound choice about its future: to move forward with a clear plan and a track record of delivery with Eluned Morgan and Welsh Labour, or to turn inward and embrace a politics of grievance and division. While Wales relied on devolution to protect itself from the worst of the Conservative and Lib Dem austerity for 14 years, that period thankfully has ended and Wales can face the future and invest. We now have a Labour Government at each end of the M4 working together for Wales, providing a record devolved financial settlement for 2026 and year-on-year increases in borrowing powers for the Welsh Government, delivering on our manifesto. That means an additional £6 billion of funding for our schools, hospitals and public services. In the Senedd, that record funding is being put to work. Waiting lists in Wales have fallen for the last seven months in a row and are the lowest they have been in three years. We are seeing serious long-term investment in improving literacy and numeracy in our schools, and significant additional support for local businesses seeking to grow. Just last week, we saw our two Governments in partnership announce the end of the historical under-investment in Wales’s railways, with a shared ambition for £14 billion-worth of upgrades across north, south, mid and west Wales, including new stations at Newport West and Cardiff Parkway, near Marshfield in my constituency. This week, the House voted to abolish the cruel two- child limit, which is set to benefit almost 70,000 children across Wales, including over 2,000 in my constituency. From April, that change will slash child poverty in Wales by 10% overnight. None of that is an accident; it is the product of a joint vision of a fairer future for Wales, rooted in social justice and delivering the jobs, transport and opportunities people need to thrive. The path of progress may be slow and difficult, but that does not make it any less valuable. Now is not the time to put the partnership at risk, just as we are beginning to see good news and developments across Wales. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing this debate on St David’s day to take place, and I look forward to hearing the contributions of other colleagues. Diolch yn fawr.