Welsh Government loses budget vote after Labour rejects spending plans
Labour refused to support the supplementary budget because of a dispute with the teaching unions over education funding
The Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government has been defeated in a Senedd vote on its spending plans after failing to win cross-party support.
Labour refused to support the supplementary budget because of a dispute with the teaching unions over education funding.
The NAHT and ASCL criticised the government over a pay deal and funding for the education of pupils with additional learning needs (ALN).
Without a majority in the Senedd, Plaid needed support from opposition Senedd members to win the budget vote.
Members voted 49 to 44 to reject the supplementary budget, which would have seen a £300 million package of funding for the NHS, childcare, free school meals, social housing and transport.
The supplementary budget was Plaid’s first opportunity to review the Welsh Government’s spending plans since forming a minority administration in May.
To try and head off a defeat, Plaid promised to allocate £40 million a year over three years for ALN, but Labour wanted £100 million of unallocated spending to be used.
During the Senedd debate, Labour, Reform and the Conservatives said they would be voting against the supplementary motion.
Finance minister Elin Jones told members the supplementary budget was an opportunity to ensure “expenditure aligns with our priorities as a new government”.
“In many respects, these were priorities that were seen in the manifestos of other parties during the election period,” she said.
Ms Jones said the Welsh Government had “sought to engage constructively” on the ALN funding issue, but warned the £40 million a year was at risk if the supplementary budget failed.
She told the chamber she was “totally flabbergasted” by the Labour Party.
“To Labour members, old and new, I know that you have recently been badly defeated in an election,” she said.
“I know it’s painful and confusing, I have been there. But ultimately, you will not be defined by that loss, but how you respond to it.
“It can make a party or break it.”
And she pointed to Labour’s Scottish colleagues who have been in “permanent opposition since 2007”.
“Last week Labour voted with Reform to ensure this Senedd voted against fair funding for Wales,” she said.
“Labour voted against fair funding for Wales.
“I shudder to think how successive, successful, previous Labour first ministers would have viewed that.
“Today, you vote against £120 million for ALN provision in Wales with Reform.
“You will be voting with parties of the right who will welcome you. They will welcome you with open arms because you will give them their majority today.
“And you are doing so against a progressive budget that provides more support for those most in need in Wales.
“The fine statue of Rhodri Morgan is tonight watching its first vote in this Senedd since it was unveiled.
“I served as a minister in his government, he reflected the progressive cooperative values of the Labour Party in Wales.
“Today, Labour have abandoned those values and in these kind of few moments, before the vote, there is still time for you to reclaim them.”
Acting Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates interjected and told the minister: “This is beneath you, Finance Minister, it truly is. I wish that you would focus more on negotiation than attacks.
“I really do, because you may be more successful in getting future budgets through this Senedd.”
Earlier, Labour’s finance spokesman Huw Thomas said Plaid’s initial proposal “contained not one penny for ALN”.
“How has it come to this? Just 64 days into a new Plaid Cymru government, where two large, well-respected unions are having to ask the intervention of an independent conciliation body to mediate its dealings with Welsh Government,” he said.
“It’s unprecedented. It’s a failure of social partnership and it says very clearly that the supplementary budget, as proposed, isn’t good enough.”
He described Plaid’s £40 million as “financially illiterate”, and added: “This Senedd Labour Group is returning to our party’s foundational mission, being the political representation of organised labour in the nation, and being the voice of the most vulnerable in our society.”
Reform’s Dan Thomas, leader of the opposition, said his party would have backed Plaid if there had been a promise to further increase ALN funding, cut overseas aid, and guarantee Welsh trained student nurses a job.
He told members: “How on earth, as a party that talks about consensus, mature politics, compromise…
“How on earth has it managed to unite most of this chamber against it? It doesn’t bode well for the future.
“It’s going to be a very long Senate if this is how Plaid Cymru do government.”
Darren Millar, leader of the Senedd Conservatives, said: “Former US president Lyndon B Johnson once said that the first rule of politics is to be able to count.
“It’s a simple rule, but it’s one that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance clearly didn’t think about when she was putting her supplementary budget together.
“We were, of course, expecting Labour to capitulate, but the feud between the two left-wing parties in the Senedd appears to be continuing.
“The political reality is this. The arithmetic in this Senedd means that Welsh Government budgets and Welsh Government legislation cannot be agreed without cross-party agreement.”