Labour slams UK Government's 'war on Welsh workers'

Wales
Owen Smith
Politics
Wednesday 26 November 2014 at 7:00am

Adrian Masters

Political Editor, ITV Cymru Wales

Owen Smith will lead the debate in the House of Commons Credit: ITV News

Labour MPs will accuse the UK Government of waging a 'war on Welsh workers' during a one-off debate in the House of Commons today. The party's determined to hit back at regular criticism in the chamber of the performance of the Welsh Government.

Criticism of Labour's record of running public services, namely health and education, is a regular feature of Prime Minister's Question time and other parliamentary debates.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith is hoping tomorrow's debate will be a chance to turn the tables on that criticism. He's expected to focus his attacks on welfare reform and what he says is the UK Government's refusal 'to scrap the bedroom tax, freeze energy bills and tackle the scourge of low pay.'

Ahead of the debate, he said:

We have called this debate because people need to know that the Tories’ war on Wales hasn’t just been limited to their attacks on our NHS: they have waged a war on Welsh workers as well. The cost of living crisis that they caused has hit Wales harder than anywhere else in Britain. Welsh wages have fallen further and Welsh prices have risen higher than in the rest of the UK, and more vulnerable people have been affected by the cruel policies like zero hours contracts and the Bedroom Tax. Stephen Crabb’s warm words on devolution, or promises of money for rail improvements after the next election, doesn’t alter the fact that on his watch more than huge swathes of the Welsh workforce have entered a Tory twilight zone of insecurity, low pay and under-employment.

Labour MPs can expect an equally fierce response from the Government benches. A Conservative party source told me:

This is a desperate motion by a party that loves nothing more than to do down the great things that are happening right across Wales at the moment. So we're delighted that Labour have given us the opportunity to talk about this government's record in Wales: 90,000 new private sector jobs, 26,000 more small buinesses, falling unemployment, 47,000 less workless households, the NATO Summit and huge infrastructure investment like the electrification of the South Wales and Valleys lines. It's no wonder that Labour don't want to talk about these things, they're all the result of the difficult decisions made by this government in 2010 - opposed every step of the way by Owen Smith and the Welsh Labour Party. In fact, so far the only thing Owen Smith has been proved right about is that Ed Miliband's Labour is hopelessly out of touch with working people - as Emily Thornberry reminded us all last week.

For the record, the motion that Labour is tabling is entitled 'Effect of Government Policy on Wales.' This is it in full: