Welsh Assembly to debate performance and legacy of Carwyn Jones’ Government

The Welsh Conservatives will be holding a debate in the Senedd on Wednesday with the aim of persuading AMs to call on the Welsh Government to “acknowledge its failures and abandon its failing policies”.

Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies AM will lead the session highlighting 11 specific areas in their motion where the Welsh Labour-led governments of the outgoing First Minister have taken Wales backwards in the economy, housing, education, and health.

The Conservatives will call on the National Assembly to regret that since Carwyn Jones became First Minister in December 2009:

• referral-to-treatment waiting times in the Welsh NHS have increased;
• performance against both the 4 and 12 hour targets in Welsh A&E departments has deteriorated;
• cancer treatment targets have never been met in Wales;
• the number of beds in Welsh hospitals has fallen;
• GCSE performance has deteriorated in Wales with attainment of A*-C grades for summer 2018 the worst since 2005;
• Wales’s OECD PISA scores are worse in reading, maths and science with the most recent results being worse than in 2009, placing Wales in the bottom half of the OECD global ranking and at the bottom of the UK rankings;
• scores of Welsh schools have permanently closed;
• gross disposable household income as a percentage of the UK average has fallen;
• Wales has had the poorest average wages growth rate of the UK nations;
• business rates in Wales have become less competitive than other parts of the UK
• the annual number of new homes being built in Wales has fallen.

The debate comes the day before Carwyn Jones’ successor as the leader of Welsh Labour is announced. All three of the candidates have spent over half of their time as AMs as members of Mr Jones’ government.

Commenting ahead of the debate, Mr Davies, said:

“The reason we are holding this debate is so the people of Wales can see how they have been shamefully let down by successive Welsh Labour governments, and the failures which became acute under Carwyn Jones.

“Their record of poor performance is there for all to see, completely destroying the myth that Labour in any way can grow our economy, improve our schools, build more homes, or efficiently run our health service.

“Though Carwyn Jones is stepping down, his successor will have been complicit in the actions of this government, demonstrating they are incapable of reversing the tide of decline Labour have inflicted upon Wales.

“Only a change in government can change Wales.”