Covid-19

Liz Saville Roberts Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, indeed. I will ask the Minister to write to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC) [V]]

I would also like to send best wishes to the hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jo Stevens) and sincere thanks to everybody working on the frontline of the NHS.

A Conservative party newsletter recently told party members to say

“the first thing that comes into your head”

even if it is “nonsense”. Yesterday, it appears that the Chancellor took on board that advice when he unwrapped £227 million of already announced funding as new for Wales. This is, and I choose my words with extreme restraint, wilful misrepresentation, which deliberately misinforms desperate businesses in Wales. Will the Prime Minister apologise on behalf of his Chancellor and recognise that if Welsh covid measures are to be effective, there is an urgent need to lift the financial borrowing constraints imposed on Wales by Westminster?

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure the right hon. Lady, for whom I have a keen regard, would not wish to accuse the Chancellor of wilful misrepresentation, Mr Speaker. All the cash that we have announced, obviously, is passported on; the important thing is that the Labour Government in Wales spend it sensibly. The UK Government are here to support businesses, jobs and livelihoods across the whole of the UK.