Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:17 pm on 14 January 2020.
I must say in opening my remarks that I very much regret the flippancy of the Conservative spokesman. He either is very naive in accepting the, to date, meaningless promises made by UK Government, or he really does care more about heaping praise on his London masters than he does about the interests of the Welsh economy. And in terms of wanting Welsh Government to have a seat at the table, I think he did very much betray what he actually thinks on this. We want the table—we want to decide in Wales how money is spent, and that is exactly what devolution is all about.
And you say that European funding has been a failure and that it hasn't closed the GDP gap. You know what, I agree with you in that it hasn't been spent as well as it should have, but at least European funding is aimed at closing that wealth gap. UK funding is not. You forever, Darren Millar, praise the additional funding coming to Wales. It is all about locking Wales in poverty. That is what additional money coming to Wales is about.