Contribution
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lefarydd. I listened with interest to the speech made by the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Brash), and heartily agreed with very much of what he said. Of course, we know that something momentous happened in Wales last week, although there was no mention of Wales from either of the Front Benchers. It is as though Wales, and possibly many other places in the UK, do not matter that much to this place, but of course I am a Member for Plaid Cymru, so it is my job to talk about Wales.
Across the campaign that ended last week, people responded strongly to our message of hope and fairness, and of putting their nation of Wales and their communities first. Plaid Cymru has won at least two representatives in every one of the Senedd’s constituencies. That is unheard of; it is momentous. We came first in 11 out of the 16 constituencies in Wales—all across Wales. The message that we only reached out to certain people has gone. Our party is now active and representing everywhere in Wales. I am proud to say that 60% of our group in the Senedd are women.
This historic result represents a decisive break from the past. It gives a Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government a clear mandate to act on urgent priorities, including reducing child poverty, cutting NHS waiting times and unlocking our economy’s latent potential. Our Cabinet was announced at 4 o’clock this afternoon. We will now need to work to deliver the progressive and stable government that Wales craves. In doing so, our priority is to form a Government who reflect the seriousness and ambition that Wales—our nation—expects and deserves. The groundbreaking result was a rejection of the stale status quo of the Labour Welsh Government and the divisive politics of Reform. It also demonstrated the Welsh public’s expectation that the UK Government end their neglect of Welsh communities. People are crying out for change, not for more of the same.
My party’s manifesto and the plan for the first 100 days of government set out the areas where we will be pressing Westminster to deliver fairness for Wales, and we look to the King’s Speech for inspiration. We need to see steps taken to devolve the Crown Estate, justice and rail, and to deliver fair funding that reflects Wales’s needs. We need parity with Scotland. In a United Kingdom that puts equality first, there is no reason for devolution to be so unbalanced between the different nations of the United Kingdom. These powers are not constitutional fripperies; they are the means to realise better lives and better communities. They are the building bricks to lift people out of poverty and desperation.
Wales needs control over our natural resources so that our communities directly benefit from their wealth, ending the scandal of high energy prices in an energy-rich country like ours. Wales needs full control over our justice system, in line with Scotland—why is that such an extraordinary thing to ask for?—so that we no longer hold the infamous status of having the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe. Instead, we would be able effectively to promote rehabilitation, and thriving communities would follow.
We need to see the end of the great Welsh train robbery that is HS2 and other English rail projects. Doing so will deliver billions in funding to our crumbling, inadequate transport network so that people can travel quickly and affordably across our nation. Wales needs to see the scrapping of the Barnett formula, and its replacement with something that reflects the reality of our population’s needs. Despite the mountains of evidence and popular support, the UK Government have stubbornly refused to engage with these issues. That has been the reality of the partnership at both ends of the M4. That, in part, is why we have had these results in Wales.
After last week’s election result, it is no longer possible to ignore Wales’s voices and people’s demands for fair treatment. In his speech on Monday, the Prime Minister did not even acknowledge Wales once, and the King’s Speech today has again failed to provide the answers that we know the people of Wales need and want. There was no acknowledgement of the structural inequality that means that the powers begrudged to Wales since the birth of devolution have so far only allowed us to manage poverty, but never ever to build our way out of poverty. In the over-centralised, chaotic Government of Westminster, that is something that we need now to address.
None of the chaos we are seeing now serves the people of Wales—or many people in many communities across the United Kingdom—and that is now in particular focus. We can now see how that chaos ill serves the people of Wales. Whoever the Prime Minister is going forward, he or she must respect the mandate that the new Welsh Government have to deliver new powers and fair funding for Wales. My party will therefore be tabling an amendment to the King’s Speech calling for a new Wales Bill, so that Wales can gain the tools we need and the means to thrive. I hope that the Prime Minister will finally have seen the error of his ways from after he warned his Government—I think in March—against over-deference to the devolved Governments. Over-deference? Where is the respect to our communities and to democracy?
Those are the changes we need to see. Sadly, I do not see them in the King’s Speech as it stands, but there is potential. I urge the Government to think seriously about the need for a new Wales Bill.