Wales in danger of “sleepwalking” through five more years of decline under Labour
Welsh Conservatives will this week call on the National Assembly for Wales to recognise the ongoing failure of the Welsh Labour Government.
The calls come in an opposition debate in the Senedd on Wednesday afternoon.
Welsh Conservatives will highlight a litany of Labour failures over 18 years of devolution and call on AMs to vote on Labour’s record since the birth of the National Assembly.
Leader of the Welsh Conservatives – Andrew RT Davies – says Labour’s ongoing failures are compounded by the lack of a tangible plan to improve public services, or to raise living standards.
Conservatives will highlight a series of failings, including:
- A Lost Generation: The Welsh Labour Government has presided over a decade of underachievement in education, with PISA results showing that Wales has the worst performing education system in the UK
- Wasting Taxpayers’ Money: Investments in Kancoat, Newsquest, KUKD and Oysterworld, along with overpaying for Cardiff Airport highlight Labour’s poor record of investment.
- A Welsh NHS ‘Postcode Lottery’: The Labour party in Wales is the only party in the history of the NHS to have cut its budget.
- Neglecting rural Wales: The Welsh Government has failed to champion Welsh produce and farmers, or to tackle the TB epidemic blighting Welsh cattle.
- Lowest take–home pay in the UK: Pay has been consistently lower in Wales than in England and Scotland, and around 1-in-5 people now live in low income households.
Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Davies said:
“Wales is a proud country with a bright future, but the Labour Party is holding back its progress, leaving communities to suffer the consequences of a creaking health service, declining school system and the lowest take-home pay in the UK.
“Labour’s ‘Programme for Government’ is thin on new ideas and there is a danger that Wales is sleepwalking towards another five years of decline.
“We firmly believe in the principle that decision-making should be brought as close as possible to the people, but a generation of socialism in action has been a disaster for the country.
“Throughout the devolution era, parties have been willing to prop Labour up in government, choosing the comfort of the ministerial car over the interests of their constituents. But the Labour Party is failing the people of Wales and the time has come for the crutch to be taken away.
“The first step on the road to recovery is to admit that there is a problem and that’s why I am urging AMs to back this motion on Wednesday.
“We need to accept that Wales is under-performing, and that hardworking Welsh families are paying the price.
“Wales is a resourceful, creative and industrious nation with huge potential – but we need to harness that energy.
“Our mission as an opposition must be to ensure that its future is as glorious as its rich and illustrious past.”
