8. Welsh Conservatives debate: 'Prosperity for All'

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:17 pm on 24 January 2018.

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Photo of Hefin David Hefin David Labour 6:17, 24 January 2018

Oh, there we are. Well, we'll look to see if he's going to play good cop, but certainly we had the bad cop to start, which took the economic plan, which I think is a good economic plan, and dismissed it in the motion in one sentence. And I think an analysis that—. To be fair to Suzy Davies, she's engaged in a very detailed and in-depth—probably not my ideological position, but certainly a detailed and in-depth analysis of the economic plan that does it justice. I don't think the motion does, which is why I'll take pleasure in voting against that motion today. 

And also it's very rich of the Tory Government in Westminster, which has turned down the Great Western main line electrification, devolution of air passenger duty, and the Swansea bay tidal lagoon's yet to be agreed—. This Government in the UK could be doing so much for the Welsh economy and is failing to do so, and that perhaps could have been recognised in their motion too. And then you get the criticisms of UKIP. You know, I'm so far from UKIP that it's a very great distance that can never be bridged, but UKIP themselves are talking about managing the economy when they can barely manage their own group and as their party collapses. [Interruption.] You wonder where does—[Interruption.]—where does—[Interruption.]—where does the ideology actually sit within UKIP, which explains the way the party is collapsing. 

Labour backbenchers have also therefore been acting quite constructively, but as constructive and critical friends to this Government. And what we've asked the Government to do is include in the economic strategy things that we wanted to see, and one of those things has been the foundational economy, and Rhun ap Iorwerth recognised that in the things that he said, and welcomed those  aspects, and it's pleasing to see that the foundational economy is recognised in it. Russell George said to me the other day, 'You always go on about business; you should be in the Conservative party', but actually—at the end of this speech, you won't want me—I'd say that the support of business, small business, small business that exists in our Valleys communities, and self-employment is actually all about the ownership of the means of production. And, in that sense, I'd say small business is a socialist construct and is recognised in this economic plan.