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Welsh Government wins draft budget vote

Wednesday, 5 February 2025 01:00

By Chris Haines - ICNN Senedd reporter

Senedd.tv

The Welsh Government won the first vote on its £26bn spending plans for next year in the absence of two Conservative Senedd members.

The Senedd, which had been expected to reject the motion, voted 29-26 in favour of the 2025-26 draft budget, with one abstention, following a two-hour debate on Tuesday.

Darren Millar and Russell George, trustees of the Evan Roberts Institute, a Christian charity, missed the vote after jetting off for a prayer meeting in Washington DC.

Labour, which holds half of the Senedd's 60 seats, refused to agree to a pairing arrangement which would have seen some of its members not vote to cover the absences.

The Conservatives similarly refused to "pair" when two Labour members were off sick for a no-confidence vote on former first minister Vaughan Gething in June.

'Knife-edge'

But Tuesday's vote was largely inconsequential unlike the crunch vote looming on March 4th.

With parliamentary arithmetic on a knife-edge, ministers still need to cut a deal with at least one opposition member to pass the final budget which will be published on February 25th.

If it's not agreed, the Welsh Government's budget would initially revert to 75% of the previous year's and if a motion is not passed by the end of July, this would rise to 95%.

Welsh rates of income tax, set to raise £3.4 billion in 2025/26, will also need to be agreed before the budget motion on March 4th or rates would fall by 10p in the £1 for all Welsh taxpayers.

Finance secretary Mark Drakeford said the draft budget provides an extra £1.5 billion, with every Welsh Government department receiving an increase in capital and revenue funding.

'Sharp contrast'

He told the Senedd: "In sharp contrast to this time last year, I have been able to provide an uplift to every part of the public service here in Wales."

Peredur Owen Griffiths, who chairs the Senedd's finance committee, raised a groundswell of evidence about the impact of the UK Government's employer national insurance hike.

He also called for a "funding floor" to close the gap between the councils that fared best and worst in the Welsh Government's 2025/26 provisional local government settlement.

With the leader of the opposition in the US for a national prayer meeting expected to be addressed by President Donald Trump, Sam Rowlands led the Conservatives' response.

The shadow finance secretary said a quarter of a century of Labour budgets in Wales have led to the longest NHS waiting lists and the worst educational outcomes in the UK.

'Missing members'

Mr Rowlands warned that Welsh firms faced the highest business rates in Britain as he criticised spending on the default 20mph limit and more politicians in Cardiff Bay.

In recent years, Welsh Government budgets have passed with Plaid Cymru's support in return for 46 commitments as part of a since-collapsed cooperation deal.

Heledd Fychan, Plaid Cymru's shadow finance secretary, said: "He [Mr Rowlands] can speak on behalf of his party but he certainly can't vote on behalf of the two missing members."

She added: "The fact that two members are missing from their benches today tells you all you need to know about what they actually think of Wales."

Accused of "propping up" Labour for three years, Ms Fychan responded: "Grown-up politics requires cooperation – it also requires turning up to vote."

'Inadequate'

She told the Senedd: "Every independent analysis, every sector in crisis demonstrates in stark terms that the draft budget is not going to lead to a brighter future for Wales."

Calling for fair funding, Ms Fychan accused the Welsh Government of name-calling and trying to bully Plaid Cymru into supporting an "inadequate" budget.

Labour's Mike Hedges and Rhianon Passmore, members of the finance committee, both distanced themselves from the committee's "partisan" press release on the draft budget.

Ms Passmore stressed: "The Welsh Government's financial settlement for 2025/26 is the largest real terms funding increase since devolution began."

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds, who is thought to be most likely to do a budget deal with the Welsh Government, did not contribute to the debate.

'Fantasy politics'

Ms Dodds, a former social worker, called for more funding for childcare and speech and language therapy during first minister's questions earlier in the plenary meeting.

Mark Drakeford accused Plaid Cymru of "fantasy politics", pointing out that the party backed cuts in previous years but would not support a better settlement in 2025/26.

Prof Drakeford said: "They will deliberately and knowingly vote to deny those public services, and those people who rely on them, the extra money available to them in this budget."

The former first minister told the opposition: "They're very keen indeed to tell us what's wrong but they've almost nothing to tell us on how that is to be put right and, even when they do, they can't tell us how they would pay for it."

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