Queen’s Speech

Baroness Humphreys Excerpts

Wednesday 11th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to contribute to the debate on the humble Address. This gracious Speech has been written by a Government full of confidence and swagger, secure in the knowledge that their 80-seat majority in the Commons, together with the programme appeasing the Prime Minister’s critics within his own parliamentary party, will ensure that most of their proposed legislation will be enacted. However, it is a Government who are, according to the Telegraph on 8 May, “in denial” after last week’s local government election results.

These elections showed that the tectonic plates are shifting beneath the Government’s feet and that the foundations of their large majority are beginning to crumble. Last Thursday’s Tory losses of nearly 500 seats are of course shrugged off by the Government and explained away as the result of mid-term blues but let us for a moment imagine that, if this were an elected Chamber and we were returning today after true mid-term elections representing the will of the people, we would be questioning whether the Government continued to have a mandate to carry out their legislative programme in this new Session.

The people of Wales spoke loudly and clearly too. The total number of councils now run by the Tories in Wales is a big round zero, and they also suffered the loss of nearly half their seats: not a resounding endorsement of this Government’s performance so far and hardly a mandate for the continuation of the damage already done to our devolved settlements.

It appears that the scales are falling off the eyes of voters. Those who believed the promises on the side of the bus, and the promises of sunlit uplands, now face a cost-of-living crisis and know that they were misled. Our farmers who believed that life would be better after Brexit, and those who heard the “not a penny less” promise on post-EU funding for Wales and believed it, now know that they were misled too. Sadly, this gracious Speech does nothing to help the millions of families and pensioners facing soaring food, energy and fuel bills, and facing the prospect of soaring inflation. It does nothing to support farmers on the brink. It does nothing to ease the sense of abandonment felt by so many, as the Prime Minister and Chancellor stand back showing little sympathy or regret for their situation.

The Government’s levelling-up agenda focuses heavily on the shared prosperity fund. I want to make a couple of comments on this and the “not a penny less” promise by the UK Government. Wales qualified for Objective 1 status under EU funding schemes precisely because West Wales and the Valleys was deemed to be among the poorest regions of the European Union. How on earth can the Government justify a levelling-up agenda that does not emphasise the economic needs of communities? Why does the approach of the UK Government on this fund redirect economic development funds away from those areas where poverty is most concentrated? These are two fundamental questions which exemplify the fundamental differences in approach between the UK and Welsh Governments. I would be grateful for a response from the Minister.

I welcome the move by the Welsh Government of initiating a partnership approach and creating the strongest possible model for post-EU regional investment in Wales, the framework for regional investment. It is the result of co-production with stakeholders, a public consultation, and a project to integrate international best practice with the OECD. I am pleased to learn that concessions have been made which will see regional allocations to local authorities in Wales align with the framework. That is a step in the right direction.

Over the next three financial years the shared prosperity fund will provide £585 million to local authorities in Wales. While this spending package compares favourably to other UK nations, it certainly does not meet the Government’s “not a penny less” commitment and leaves the Welsh Government facing a loss of more than £1 billion in unreplaced funding over that period. This is not lost on the Welsh electorate. They have seen the UK Government bypass and undermine our Senedd in the distribution of the shared prosperity fund and attempt to emasculate it in the United Kingdom Internal Market Act, the Subsidy Control Act and other Acts, and they anticipate similar treatment in the Bills referred to in the gracious Speech—all, according to Ministers, in the name of the binding the union together. If the Government were to examine the results of the local government elections in the devolved nations, they might come to the conclusion that our electorates have a different view from them.

Finally, I was delighted to hear the reference to Great British Railways in the gracious Speech and would be interested to know what plans the Government have to improve the railway infrastructure in Wales, an issue that is not devolved. We have been making the case for improvements in terms of electrification for years. I have referred to this in responses to at least two or three gracious Speeches. If levelling up is to mean anything, it means levelling up our railway service in Wales. I will be grateful for the Minister’s comments.