Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:49 pm on 12 January 2021.
Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you to everybody for their contributions to the debate this afternoon. I'll try and respond to as much as I can during the time I have, but also would remind colleagues that my ministerial colleagues look forward to attending committee and providing that in-depth level of answers to scrutiny as well in the coming days.
I do want to focus my response in large part on the budget for next year, but I have to address these comments about the in-year position before I do so. You will have seen, Llywydd, as others would, these ridiculous claims that the Welsh Government is somehow sitting on £1 billion of funding. Well, we've known for many years that the Tories are good at division, but they clearly have proven themselves to be pretty bad at subtraction, because the budget position that they refer to was that which was the case back at the supplementary budget at the point at which it was laid last year. Since then, Welsh Government has made over £600 million of allocations in respect of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. And, of course, we have had some further consequential funding as a result of spending in England, but I do think that we need, and we owe it to people in Wales, to be honest about the financial position that we are in. If I were sitting on £1 billion, then the Chancellor was sitting on £25 billion. So, the fact that the Conservatives have made such great play of this is very interesting, and the fact that the Prime Minister has reiterated those claims is absolutely to his shame.