Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 11 March 2020.
Well, I've got bad news for the opposition spokesperson, of course, because austerity certainly isn't over. If you look at the documentation that supports the UK Government's budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility paints a pretty gloomy picture of prospects, even before taking into account COVID-19. And that's not surprising, given the UK Government's reckless approach to trade negotiations with our largest and most important trading partner, the European Union. At no point in this Parliament does the OBR suggest that growth will even reach 2 per cent, which is pretty poor by historic terms. So I don't think that we can say austerity is over. And even with the additional funding that comes to Welsh Government today as a result of the UK Government's budget, it barely takes us back to where we were 10 years ago. So, austerity, I'm afraid, is still with us.