FMQ’s: Eluned Morgan accused of not fighting for Wales

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This week’s First Minister’s Questions is the first since Rachel Reeves’ budget last week, and some opposition members think that Eluned Morgan hasn’t stood up for what is right for Wales.

Transcript

00:00Rachel Reeves' budget last week was not a positive one. She said herself that tough

00:06decisions had to be made, and she didn't want to have to give a budget in the form

00:10of the ones she did. In terms of Welsh issues, she said that they included the biggest ever

00:16real-terms increase in funding, but some Senedd members are sceptical, and wanted to see more

00:21from the UK government.

00:22And so Wales' day-to-day spending settlement is less generous than that of Scotland and

00:27Northern Ireland. There was complete silence on HS2 consequentials, with Wales' comparability

00:33factor for transport shrinking from 80.9% in 2015 to 33.5% in 2024, and calls for the

00:44devolution of the Crown Estate were ignored again. Why are we consigned to further austerity,

00:52and why did the First Minister fail her first test to fight for what is right for Wales?

00:58I'll tell you what, we fought and we won. We won £25 million for our communities, our

01:05core communities, that these guys wouldn't even ask for. And so we are very pleased with

01:12that, and the fact that we're going to get the highest uplift that we've had since devolution

01:18began, £1.7 billion, that is going to help to rebuild our public services.

01:24Specific funding for assuring safety of old coal tips was a positive, but Deleth Jewell

01:29of Plaid Cymru thinks that the scars are still there from what the coal tips represent.

01:35These coal tips stand as reminders of how Wales was exploited, how we were left with

01:40the rubbish after our wealth was taken from us. For as long as those tips exist, the

01:47shadow of that betrayal will hang over our valleys. We can't afford delays or half-measures

01:53because the risk of history repeating itself is just too awful to contemplate.

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