Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dave Doogan and Jo Stevens

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dave Doogan (Angus and Perthshire Glens) (SNP)]

3. What recent discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on reducing the cost of living in Wales.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Jo Stevens)]

I have regular discussions with the Chancellor and Treasury Ministers on a wide range of issues, including the cost of living. This Labour Government are on the side of working people. That is why we have already taken action by increasing the national minimum wage and the national living wage for 160,000 workers across Wales. We have frozen fuel duty and extended the warm home discount. There is more to do, and we are determined to put more money into people’s pockets right across Wales.

[Dave Doogan]

A century of Labour taking the people of Wales for granted came crashing down last week with the sensational victory of Plaid’s Lindsay Whittle in Caerphilly, with Labour reduced to third place. Why would anybody accept any more Labour, as Labour’s cost of living soars, its Westminster perma-crisis deepens, and 700,000 people in Wales live under its poverty prospectus? The Secretary of State will not say what she is going to speak to the Chancellor about, but does she think the Chancellor is ready and willing to help the people of Wales? The people of Wales feel abandoned by Labour over the last five decades.

[Jo Stevens]

I am not sure whether the hon. Member has ever been to Caerphilly or even to Wales. If he has, that is good; if he has not, he needs to be careful about what he says about the people in Wales. He absolutely does not know what he is talking about. His party’s record in Scotland is nothing to boast about. Nationalists will divide the United Kingdom, costing Wales £21.5 billion every single year.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dave Doogan and Jo Stevens

Wednesday 30th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dave Doogan (Angus and Perthshire Glens) (SNP)]

4. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the UK’s departure from the EU on the economy in Wales.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Jo Stevens)]

We are negotiating a new partnership with the EU and believe that securing a broad-based security partnership, bringing closer co-operation on law and order and tackling barriers to trade will boost our economies, keep us safe and improve families’ finances. Since coming into government, I have worked with UK and Welsh Government colleagues to drive more than £1.5 billion in private investment into Wales from the likes of Eren Holding and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, creating hundreds of jobs and laying the groundwork for thousands more.

[Dave Doogan]

Only this Government can deliver cold comfort and warm words all in the same sentence. The fact of the matter is that, after the Labour-Tory hard Brexit, the Welsh economy suffered by £4 billion, trade has gone down by £1 billion and Wales has lost £1 billion in European structural and development funding. On top of that, the Labour Budget has kicked Wales even further down the track. When will the Secretary of State stand up to her Westminster masters and finally do something in the interests of the people of Wales?

[Jo Stevens]

Welsh businesses both large and small tell us time and again that they are being held back by red tape. We need to tackle the barriers to trade in order to help drive investment, jobs and growth for both the UK and EU economies. Nationalists can continue their obsession with the constitution, putting up borders instead of breaking down barriers, and raising taxes on working people, as they have done in Scotland.