5. Debate on NNDM6753: The Secretary of State for Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:50 pm on 27 June 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:50, 27 June 2018

Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this afternoon's debate. It's a debate we're having, of course, because of the UK Government's decision on Monday not to support the Swansea bay tidal lagoon project, a pathfinder project that would have tested the viability of tidal lagoon energy generation and could have paved the way for the development of a wider industry in Wales, an industry, as Simon Thomas said in opening, that had the potential to be of global significance.

Now, Dirprwy Lywydd, it's taken the UK Government almost a year and a half to reach this decision. Indeed, they had had the report of its own independent adviser that concluded that it should be supported on a no-regrets basis for fully six months before it entered a general election making the promises that Mick Antoniw pointed out in his intervention—six long months in which it could have made its mind up about it. In fact, it went to the election making promises to the people of that part of south Wales and, ever since, instead of support, we have witnessed a depressing catalogue of prevarication, obfuscation, delay, and a reluctance even to engage with the many interests who have wanted to support the proposal for the Swansea bay tidal lagoon.

As we've heard in the debate, this is a Government, of course, with form when it comes to saying 'no' to Wales. The dust has barely settled on the UK Government's short-sighted decision to renege on its promise to electrify the main line all the way to Swansea. Many of us here will remember the former Secretary of State for Wales's, Cheryl Gillan's, promises about faster electric trains all the way to Swansea as she sat on board one of those diesel trains that still make their way every day to and from Paddington. And, as we have learnt, and as Simon Thomas says, we now know that the Prime Minister personally approved the cancellation of the electrification of the Cardiff to Swansea stretch of the railway. That Cardiff to Swansea main line electrification was just one in a series of much-needed infrastructure projects to be cancelled by that UK Government.

Now, Dirprwy Lywydd, I thank the Conservative Party for their amendment. It cheered up the end of a long afternoon yesterday with its powerful assertion that the age of satire is still alive and well in the seats opposite. Short of parting the Red Sea, we now know that everything that has happened in Wales in living memory was due to the single-handed efforts of the Secretary of State for Wales. On closer examination, however, I wonder, Dirprwy Lywydd, if the Table Office might consider attaching a health warning to amendments of this sort in future, a sort of 'check against reality' message, because as I began to read my way down the significant achievements of the Secretary of State for Wales, I came, first of all, to his role in the agreement with the Welsh Government of an historic fiscal framework. Well, I well remember, Dirprwy Lywydd, the autumn of 2016 as I met every month, and more than monthly, with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke. I remember signing the historical fiscal framework with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I don't remember the Secretary of State in a single one of those meetings. I did see him in a photo opportunity with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury later in that day, and it had not occurred to me that his role in a photo opportunity would make its way into a motion in front of the National Assembly for Wales as an historic achievement. I could go through the rest of the amendment—[Interruption.] Mr Ramsay.