Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 26 November 2019.
Yes, you're right, the manifesto does refer to the report, and it uses the language of 'working with' and 'considering the report', but why couldn't there be a cast-iron commitment at least to devolve policing, and then to go further and deliver the recommendations of the report? This is a rowing back, effectively, from the position that you had in the 2017 manifesto. Now, the paper 'Reforming our Union', which you published recently, says the Barnett formula should be replaced by, and I quote,
'a new relative needs-based system implemented, within a comprehensive and consistent fiscal framework'.
Now, in your manifesto, your 2019 manifesto, there is a reference to that document, yes, but only in the context, yet again, of it being considered by a constitutional convention. On the Barnett formula, you merely refer to long-term reform of how the UK allocates public expenditure. Now, we've been awaiting that long-term reform, haven't we, since the Barnett formula was first introduced as a temporary measure by the Callaghan Labour Government in 1978. Now, can you say if your party is explicitly committing to scrapping the Barnett formula, and, if so, by what date?