Rising Living Costs

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 11 January 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:15, 11 January 2022

Llywydd, I can absolutely assure Joyce Watson that time after time after time, Welsh Ministers, together with their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland, lobbied UK Ministers against their plans to take that £20 every week away from poorest families. There's a quadrilateral meeting of finance Ministers later this week. Rebecca Evans will once again be making these points to UK Government Ministers. A windfall tax—. As these prices rocket, so the profits made by companies rocket alongside them, and given that it is the public that is paying that money in, I think the public have a right to expect that a Government acting on their behalf would take some of that money back to invest in mitigating the impact on those who need that help the most. These are not difficult decisions for any Government to make, unless, as Joyce Watson said, there is a different political agenda that a Government is pursuing. There are actions that the UK Government can and actions that they should take. Welsh Ministers will be there this week again pressing that case on them.