6. Will the Minister outline how the £1.2 billion injection to Wales from the UK Government’s autumn statement will benefit people in Denbighshire? OQ58777

Llywydd, when the draft budget is published on 13 December, it will have to balance the £600 million, which is now available next year, against the remaining £1 billion reduction in that budget's purchasing power. That reduction caused by the same inflation that is inflicting so much harm on the citizens of Denbighshire.

Thank you very much for that answer, First Minister, and what we've seen in recent weeks is the UK Conservative Government again taking leadership in difficult financial times to invest in Wales. And, indeed, in their autumn statement, it was revealed that we will receive £1.2 billion in consequential funding, and this, of course, is in addition to the levelling-up and shared prosperity funding, which has benefited areas in my patch in Denbighshire. Now, as you will know, the Vale of Clwyd has Rhyl in the constituency, which has one of the poorest areas in all of Wales, with high rates of unemployment and a small amount of opportunities for people—[Interruption.]

Can you allow the Member to continue his question, Labour backbenchers?

Yes. Thank you, Llywydd. A small amount of opportunities for people to find well-paid and sustainable careers in the local area, something that could be solved in part if we had a Welsh Government that worked for all of Wales and worked in partnership with Westminster. So, will the First Minister outline today how he will best work with Rishi Sunak and the UK Government in making sure that my constituency feels the benefit of this injection of cash, rather than just sniping from the sidelines?

Well, Llywydd, it's one of those questions where you don't know where to start, really. First of all, let's put the record straight. I see that the Member was busy tweeting that Wales was going to get £1.2 billion in funding for schools and hospitals. Well, of course, that's not true at all. Forty-four per cent of all the consequential that comes to Wales is a consequence of changes to business rate support announced in England. So, half the money is gone before we start on any school or any hospital, and even when that money is there, it still leaves a budget that in real terms, next year, is £1 billion less than it was when that Conservative Government fixed the budget in November last year. That's the truth that faces the residents of Denbighshire.

I hardly knew what to think when I heard the Member refer to the levelling-up fund and the shared prosperity fund. Did he notice that his Government took another £400 million out of the shared prosperity fund in the autumn statement? We already knew that the absolute guarantee that Wales would not be a penny worse off as a result of losing Objective 1 funding wasn't going to be true at all. That was already clear from the previous funds that the UK Government had outlined. Now we've got £400 million less even than that, and we don't even have an announcement on the funding for Wales at all. Any suggestion that the way in which people in the Member's constituency are to find new opportunities in their lives is by following what has been happening at Westminster is so far removed from the reality of the position that the Member's question this afternoon needs a very significant dose of reality.