Welsh Affairs

Wayne David Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hart]

No, no, hold tight. I liked the idea of a £20,000 dragon statue in Ebbw Vale, but the test of these things must be how they have contributed positively to jobs and growth. My challenge to the Welsh Government is for the UK and Welsh Governments to work collaboratively on the shared prosperity fund to make sure that those objectives are met and are driven by local demand.

[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way. It really is a travesty for him to attempt to depict European funding in this way. European funding has been a huge boost to the Welsh economy. We need only look at road infrastructure, the colleges, the voluntary sector that has benefited and the training that we have put in place. All those things are very positive, but what he has presented is a gross caricature of reality.

[Simon Hart]

It is in fact quite the opposite. I suspect that what I have done is cause a certain amount of embarrassment. We all know and understand that the funding does not always work in the way that it should. I made it absolutely clear that the examples I gave are the exceptions, not the rule. My point is very clear. There should be a collaborative approach by the Welsh and UK Governments to prioritise jobs and growth. If the Welsh Government or Welsh Labour cannot live with that, that is their problem, not mine.

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[Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bridgend (Dr Wallis) on his excellent maiden speech. I am sure he will make many more worthwhile contributions in this House. As someone who comes from a small village near Bridgend, I wish him well, and I look forward to his future contributions to the Elvis festival in Porthcawl.

I wish to refer to the flooding that has afflicted a number of areas in my constituency over the past couple of weeks. In Bedwas, Machen, Llanbradach and Bargoed, homes and businesses—and in Bedwas a rugby club—have suffered flooding, in some cases quite severely. For many there is no insurance, and everyone who has suffered physical damage to their properties has also suffered emotional trauma. It is appalling when someone suffers the consequence of their home flooding with dirty water. Everywhere, the community has shown exemplary resilience and pulled together, with people helping each other. In Bedwas, where I live, volunteers have cleaned the local rugby club, and an amazing sum of money has been collected. On Sunday night, I will attend a sell-out concert in Bedwas workmen’s hall, to collect money for local people who have been affected by the floods. I pay tribute to the workers of Caerphilly County Borough Council, who have worked tirelessly to help people and deal with situations that are unprecedented in recent times.

Tomorrow I will meet parliamentary colleagues, Assembly Members, and the leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council, Councillor Philippa Marsden. We will review the situation, and I am sure we will agree to reinforce the representations already made for additional central Government funding for the areas hit by flooding. Those extra resources are required from London so that the Welsh Government, and our local authorities, can continue to respond effectively to this unprecedented situation.

I wish to raise a couple of other issues. We have heard about the proposal to build a third runway at Heathrow airport, and about the Court of Appeal ruling against those plans on the basis that the expansion would breach environmental legislation. Be that as it may, it does not alter the fact that Heathrow expansion, if correctly done with appropriate legislation, could bring enormous benefit to the British economy, and especially to the economy of south Wales. I hope that the Government will get their act together and come forward with appropriate legislation that protects the environment, so that the expansion can go ahead and bring economic benefits to the country, including in Wales.

The independent Airports Commission has concluded that an expanded Heathrow will mean an extra 8,400 jobs in Wales, and up to £8 billion more in economic growth. The economy of Wales is largely based on exports, 60% of which go to the European Union. With an expanded and enhanced western rail link to Heathrow, expansion of that airport will bring tremendous economic benefits to Wales. It will mean more visitors to Wales, more destinations that Welsh tourists can reach, and, crucially, more opportunity for Welsh businesses to get to those all-important new markets. That is why the Welsh Government are firmly in support of the new runway, and I desperately hope that the Government manage to get their act together.

I also wish to mention the growing importance of UK defence contracts to the Welsh economy. In the last financial year alone, the Ministry of Defence spent more than £1 billion with industry in Wales, directly supporting more than 7,500 jobs. That is welcome, but we need much more of that. Last autumn, I went to the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition in London’s Docklands, which is the largest exhibition of its kind anywhere in the world. I was especially pleased to see an excellent stand from Wales, organised by the Welsh Government. These things give huge opportunities to small and medium-sized businesses from Wales, which are increasingly benefiting from defence contracts. Those contracts also have a huge knock-on effect on the supply chains in Wales.

I was especially pleased to see a company from my constituency represented on that stand in the defence exhibition. Drone Evolution from Caerphilly is a small company that recognises that there are opportunities in the defence sector, as well as in the civilian sector—it is important to recognise that these days, those two things go very much together. I am also pleased about the investment by Thales in Blaenau Gwent. In 2009 Thales—again, with the support of the extremely proactive Welsh Government—launched its National Digital Exploitation Centre. That is in the heads of the valleys, where it is especially welcome. As we know, the heads of the valleys in south Wales continue to suffer economic and social deprivation, and a lot more sustained work is needed to ensure that those communities are rehabilitated and given the dynamic future they deserve.

I was also pleased at the significant investment by General Dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil—an area not dissimilar from Blaenau Gwent; it is just along the heads of the valleys from it, and it has seen far better times. The decision by General Dynamics to assemble and test the Army’s new Ajax vehicles in Merthyr has been extremely successful, and a huge fillip to the Welsh economy. Before long, however, that contract will come to an end, and it is important for the community and the workforce that a significant new contract be secured.

The multi-role vehicle protected programme will be a significant addition to the Army and to the country’s very high readiness forces, and the troop-carrying vehicles and battlefield ambulances could well be built in Merthyr Tydfil. A procurement process is under way at the Ministry of Defence, but I urge the Government to make real the principles and arguments advanced so articulately by the right hon. Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) in the Dunne report.

We must recognise that defence contracts are not simply a matter for the Ministry of Defence to consider in isolation. If we are serious about developing a sovereign capability, and I believe all of us should be, defence contracts must take into account the social and economic contribution they can make to the country as a whole and to hard-pressed regions like the south Wales valleys. That is the essential message of the Dunne report. I hope the Government will make it real, beginning by ensuring that General Dynamics secures that contract in Merthyr Tydfil.

These are not easy times in Wales, but it is very clear that Wales today is a nation with very special values. I end as I started: by saying that the response of people to the floods shows that the nation of Wales is essentially a community of people with strong co-operative and collective values. Long may that continue.

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[David T. C. Davies]

Yes, I will get back to the hon. Gentleman on that point. On the general issue of rail services, as he will know, we are spending £1.4 billion on rail infrastructure over the next control period. We could do even better for connectivity if we could persuade colleagues in the Welsh Government to support the M4 relief road, and to accept the borrowing that is being offered to them to build that much-needed road.

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), my hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Rob Roberts) and the hon. Member for Cynon Valley, who all had in common an attempt to see who could use the most Welsh in the Chamber. Dydw i ddim yn siwr pwy sydd wedi ennill y wobr. I will not push my luck. I was on the Welsh Affairs Committee when we changed the rules to allow Welsh to be used at all times. It was right that we should do that. We now allow Welsh to be used, of course, in the Welsh Grand Committee, and it is quite right that we should do that as well. There is more to be done in the Chamber and around the House of Commons. I would be perfectly amenable to supporting further changes and reforms to allow Welsh to be used even more widely in the House.

[Wayne David]

Can the hon. Gentleman tell us when the next Welsh Grand Committee will be held?

[David T. C. Davies]

I am told by the Secretary of State that I cannot at the moment, but I am sure that it will be coming soon.

I suspect that I may have left out some hon. Members. If I did, I apologise. I say to the hon. Member for Gordon (Richard Thomson) that like me, he remembered the referendum, but I was on the opposing side at the time. There may be those, as the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd said, who now oppose devolution in Wales, but I am certainly not one of them. I recognise that the people of Wales have spoken not once, but twice on this, and they have made their views very clear. We have a Welsh Assembly, and it has the support of the people of Wales. It would be utterly wrong for anyone, in my opinion, to try to undermine the Welsh Assembly. That is not something that I or the Secretary of State for Wales will do. I am pleased to put on record our support for the principle of having a Welsh Assembly, and of course we will do what we can to ensure that the Government of the Welsh Assembly change.

As we leave the European Union, we stand on the brink of a new chapter—a potentially glorious chapter—in the history of Wales. As we regain control in the United Kingdom of our laws, our borders and our taxpayers’ money, there will be enormous opportunities to ensure that Wales prospers and develops. I very much look forward to being a part of that. I wish everyone a very happy Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant. Diolch yn fawr iawn.