Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 12 January 2021.
Thank you for that answer, First Minister. Last week, I was very pleased to read on the Welsh Conservatives' social media accounts that the UK Government was providing £220 million of—and I quote—'extra funding' to support jobs and businesses in Wales. That would certainly be very welcome and much needed at this time, especially in areas like my constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. The announcement was also described by the Welsh Conservatives' economy spokesman, Russell George, as—and again, I quote—'an additional £227 million'. Then the UK Treasury embarrassingly corrected its own press notice after wrongly claiming that the Chancellor's announcement meant extra or additional money for Wales. I recall that, last July, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the whole lack of transparency in Treasury budgets was contributing to the confusion about the financial support being given to devolved Governments, making it more difficult to scrutinise and saying that this was corrosive to public trust. Well, First Minister, I got my calculator out, and that tells me that £227 million multiplied by nil equals nil. So, is my calculator wrong, or have we, in fact, been told one of the most misleading and dishonest statements ever told by the Welsh Tories? And does this not prove that the UK Government should follow the Welsh Government's more transparent approach?