Devolved Public Services: Funding

Baroness Humphreys Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I agree with my noble friend that we have cause to meet requests from the Welsh Government—we need to receive them properly, understand them and have clarity about what they want. We will continue to work constructively with this Welsh Government, as we worked constructively with the previous Welsh Government, but we need to understand what exactly they wish to see happen, rather than just saying, as my noble friend pointed out, that something needs to be done.

[Baroness Humphreys (LD)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord on his party’s success in the Senedd elections. I also acknowledge the success of Welsh Labour’s D’Hondt system in achieving the most proportionate result in Senedd elections to date. In contrast, the 2024 UK general election, held under first past the post, saw Labour take 63% of parliamentary seats on a 33.7% vote share. I ask the Minister: when will the rest of the UK catch up with the devolved nations and introduce a fair voting system which reflects the proportion of votes cast?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords, I wondered how quickly we might divert away from the question relating to Wales. I salute the noble Baroness’s ingenuity in talking about proportional representation. We have other devolved settlements with mayoral authorities to introduce more proportional ways of voting, but I point out that not that long ago, we had a national referendum on moving to a more proportional way of voting for general elections and an alternative to first past the post—I see some close observers of electoral systems are dissenting from my observations, so I will say “moving away from” first past the post—and that was resoundingly rejected by the British public.