Dwi’n croesawu’r cyfle i siarad Cymraeg heddiw, ond dwi’n credu bod Aelodau anrhydeddus yn gwybod fy mod yn ddysgwr, felly mae’n rhaid i mi siarad Saesneg yma heddiw.
(Translation) I welcome the opportunity to speak in Welsh today, but I think hon. Members know that I am a learner, so I will speak English from now on.
I welcome the chance to speak today. I am a proud Welshman––Cymro balch ydw i. It has been a fascinating experience for me to be in this place over the last two years considering the matters that affect my home, where I was born and raised, in north-west Wales. As many will know, the Union has become a real point of interest to me, so I welcome the debate and I am grateful to the Secretary of State for securing it.
I have always felt that we, as Welsh politicians, are quite a collegiate bunch: we get on, we have a laugh, we enjoy each other’s company from time to time and we can try to get things done. I hope that that spirit can continue through this debate, but it surprised me that every effort I made to intervene on Opposition Members today was rebuffed. That is out of character for our general debate and for the way we are in Wales.
I wondered what a resident of Aberconwy would think of the debate’s title, “Strengthening the Union”. I will be really honest. I think that they would say that we all need to do better. It is a source of regret that the debate has contained many personal attacks, merited or otherwise, because they are tangential to the question before us of how to strengthen the Union. It is a genuine source of regret to me that we have gone down that route at times in this debate.
I would like to make one suggestion to each of the parties represented here today about how each of us can strengthen the Union. Because we are in the context of the pandemic, I will start with the question of what an inquiry into the pandemic would count. It would say that there have been more cases, more hospitalisations and more deaths per 100,000 in Wales than in other parts of the UK. Those are the numbers, which I checked at lunch time between our sittings. It would also say that we had more days in lockdown in Wales than in other parts of the UK.
In my constituency, we spotted early that while Blaenau Gwent has a population density per square kilometre of 641, in Aberconwy it is just 104. The covid death rate in Aberconwy was just one quarter of what it was in Blaenau Gwent. I make that point because the same restrictions were applied across the whole of Wales without differentiation or distinction. In Aberconwy, we were subjected to exactly the same restrictions as a part of the country that had a death rate four times higher and a population density six times higher. That really hurt businesses and many residents in Aberconwy.
My point is not to make an attack, but to respectfully suggest to the Welsh Labour Government that to strengthen the Union, they could own their decisions. More money has been poured into Wales than ever before, but the decisions that have been made are affecting the outcomes. Health outcomes in Wales are among the worst in the UK. The hon. Member for Caerphilly shakes his head, but that is what the numbers show and, as a result, we have to own those decisions, not least because health in Wales has been the responsibility of the Welsh Government for the last 22 years.
To our colleagues in Plaid Cymru, I am grateful for the approach they took with their comments. As a proud Welshman, I listen hard to the party of Wales and what it has to say to me as a Welshman. I am really interested and genuinely want to engage with that. I put it to Plaid Cymru Members that the Secretary of State made the point about taxation and how, with a deficit approaching 20%, an independent Government could form. I mention independence because it was raised as a manifesto position in the local elections in May; incidentally, they resulted in a reduced representation and vote share, so there is a question there. It is not so much about the finances, but about the Government’s moral duty to look after the weakest and the most vulnerable. That is why Plaid Cymru must come forward with an explanation of how it would fund things. It has a moral duty to explain how it would look after the weakest and most vulnerable in an independent Wales.
Finally, I turn to my own party, the Conservatives. I remind colleagues that the turnout for the general election was 71%, in contrast to the turnout of the last Senedd elections, which was 47%. The people of Wales are looking to this Government to help them in their problems every bit as much as they are looking to the Senedd, and we have that responsibility. For that reason, I thank this Government for what they have done with the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, and the ability to spend locally. We know that of the European funding decisions made in Wales, just 9% were passed to the local community and authority. The rest were held by the Senedd. I contrast that with England, where over 35% of such decisions were made by local authorities. trust in localism is vital, and I welcome what the UK Government have done to restore it. I finish with an encouragement to all to strengthen the Union.
