Lee Waters
Welsh Labour · Wales
“Rachel Reeves inherited a broken economy and has begun the work of repair. This was a necessary budget, necessary because austerity failed. And again, it's been left to a Labour Government to repair the damage. Let's remember the policy of austerity was a political choice.”
“It is the misleading terms used by the leader of the opposition that are doing the damage that he then complains about. But this isn't an isolated incident. He's also claimed repeatedly that there is a ban on road building in Wales. Not only is it not true, he knows it's not true, but he shrugs it off.”
“Let me go through the figures. Those of us who are not farmers will face death duties of 40 per cent on anything over £325,000 that we pass on. That will not apply to farms. There'll be no inheritance tax to pay on any estate worth under £1 million—a huge tax advantage for farmers.”
“There are aspects I'd like to have seen done differently, but I applaud Rachel Reeves for getting the big call right. I do regret that we've stopped making the case for progressive taxation; the idea that the more you earn—[ Interruption .]—no, thank you—the more you should contribute. It's the price we pay for a civilised society.”
“A censure by the Senedd is a solemn thing. None of us should take lightly a rebuke by our peers or a finding against us by the independent standards commissioner. But I’m bound to note a pattern of behaviour from the leader of the opposition, Andrew R.T. Davies.”
“It was the key workers who had to absorb that through frozen wages. This Labour budget has thrown a lifeline to our front-line services with pay rises to key workers to start to make up for those years of sacrifice.”
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Every one of 13 lines we hold for Lee Waters, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account.
“I've heard much angst from the rural community about companies and rich individuals buying up farms to exploit tax loopholes. Well, this change is designed to tackle that. If there are genuine issues, if there are unintended consequences, let's address them as they arise, as the example that has just been given. But let's remember the huge contribution that this budget will make to starting to repair our economy and our public services, because, in this budget, our Senedd will have £21 billion a year to invest in Wales—the largest settlement, in real terms, in the history of devolution.”
“Let me go through the figures. Those of us who are not farmers will face death duties of 40 per cent on anything over £325,000 that we pass on. That will not apply to farms. There'll be no inheritance tax to pay on any estate worth under £1 million—a huge tax advantage for farmers. The Financial Times says that last year, just 462 farms inherited more than £1 million across the whole of the UK. And the Government points out that when you add in the other allowances, the real threshold is nearer £2 million. The tax specialist, Dan Neidle, says that it could capture as few as 100 large landowners across the UK. Not many of those, if any, will be in Wales. When wealthy farms are eligible for inheritance tax, they will face a rate of 20 per cent instead of 40 per cent like everyone else. So, let's get this in proportion.”
“But the thing about inheritance tax is that even though very few people pay it—only about 4 per cent of people get captured—polls show that 10 times as many think it'll affect them, and that's what we're seeing again: claims that this budget will destroy the future of the family farm are getting way ahead of the facts. Paul Johnson, the highly respected head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says that the complaints are massively overdone and that the tax change will affect a very small number of large farms, he says, and they're still going to be better treated than anyone else in terms of inheritance tax. Those of us who are not farmers—[ Interruption .] Yes.”
“There are aspects I'd like to have seen done differently, but I applaud Rachel Reeves for getting the big call right. I do regret that we've stopped making the case for progressive taxation; the idea that the more you earn—[ Interruption .]—no, thank you—the more you should contribute. It's the price we pay for a civilised society. It's an idea with a strong Welsh tradition. It was Jim Griffiths who put in place the national insurance system that funded the welfare state after the war, and Lloyd George, in his people's budget, who placed death duties at the centre of efforts to tackle intergenerational inequality. There's a strong Welsh progressive tradition of using the tax system to advance fairness, and I'd hope that the Liberals and Plaid Cymru would remember that inheritance tax is a progressive tax.”
“It was the key workers who had to absorb that through frozen wages. This Labour budget has thrown a lifeline to our front-line services with pay rises to key workers to start to make up for those years of sacrifice. But the Tories have learned nothing from their wipeout, with no contrition, no acknowledgement of the consequences of their chaos. Today's Tory motion, unbelievably, condemns rises in taxes and calls for even more spending. But as the Institute for Fiscal Studies points out, if the Tories had won the election, their first budget would've implemented sharp cuts to spending—a £20 billion cut, according to the Resolution Foundation—and yet they criticise this budget. No wonder voters are cynical about politics. Dirprwy Lywydd, no budget is perfect.”
“Rachel Reeves inherited a broken economy and has begun the work of repair. This was a necessary budget, necessary because austerity failed. And again, it's been left to a Labour Government to repair the damage. Let's remember the policy of austerity was a political choice. Other choices were available in 2010, but the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government chose—[ Interruption. ] Not yet. They chose an approach that history will show caused real harm to our country. They not only shrunk the state, they shrunk the economy: a fall of 2 per cent in GDP. Their austerity policy made us poorer and made our key services poorer. Spending fell in real terms per person every year between 2010 and the start of COVID. At the time an ageing population demanded greater investment in the NHS and social care, Tories flatlined spending budgets.”
“In the debates around tree planting, you and your colleagues often make the case that we can't ask farmers to do things like that because it impedes their ability to act as a business and they should be treated as a business. Well, now they're going to be treated as a business and you're still not happy.”
“It is the misleading terms used by the leader of the opposition that are doing the damage that he then complains about. But this isn't an isolated incident. He's also claimed repeatedly that there is a ban on road building in Wales. Not only is it not true, he knows it's not true, but he shrugs it off. He suggested children were being forced to eat halal meat, without evidence. Even when the Muslim Council of Wales warned of the real consequences on our streets of what they called 'ham-fisted attempts at dog-whistle racism', he was still unrepentant. In his finding of fact, the standards commissioner tells us that Andrew R.T. Davies says what he says 'should be tolerated as "an inaccurate exaggeration".' So, he accepts what he says is not right. He just doesn't think it matters. Well, Llywydd, it does matter. Honesty matters.”
“This is not the behaviour we are entitled to expect from a Member, let alone the leader of the opposition of our national Parliament. Describing the change in speed limits as a ‘blanket’ one, when it only applies to a minority of roads, is clearly deliberate and intended to mislead. But this isn’t some jolly jape; lives are at stake, and confusion is sowed by this inaccurate use of language. The Conservative transport spokesperson, Natasha Asghar, has already been censured for her dishonesty. The Conservatives have said that the change in speed limits has caused tourists to stay away. From comments I’ve seen online, the reason given by people who were put off from visiting is that they are worried that the speed limit is a ‘blanket’ one.”
“A censure by the Senedd is a solemn thing. None of us should take lightly a rebuke by our peers or a finding against us by the independent standards commissioner. But I’m bound to note a pattern of behaviour from the leader of the opposition, Andrew R.T. Davies. The fact that he’s not here this afternoon, is not on screen—I’m not aware, Dirprwy Lywydd, if he’s offered any explanation—speaks of a contempt about our standards. This is not the first time his words and conduct have been questioned. Today, he faces two separate reports from the standards committee about his conduct—two. And in the second of them, he did not even reply to invitations to make written or oral representations to the committee’s work in the complaint about him. He intends to keep shrugging them off.”
“Of course, it's not for us to second guess the investigation into this awful incident, and it is important to remember how rare deaths are on the railways, but the report yesterday suggested that the blockage in the pipe that sprayed sand when there are slippages may point to an issue with maintenance. And there have been historic challenges with the performance of maintenance depots that Transport for Wales sub-contract to. So, separate to the investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, would the Cabinet Secretary ask Transport for Wales to conduct a review of the performance of the maintenance depots, and whether any steps will be prudently now taken to improve them?”
“The majority of the health board is made up of the executive of the board and non-executive members, many of whom worked for the NHS. So, how do we guard against groupthink? How do we make sure there is robust scrutiny? How do we maintain public confidence when the health board have refused to attend a public meeting to explain themselves, preferring instead a managed drop-in session? You said that twice a year the Welsh Government assesses quality, service performance and financial management, and Hywel Dda health board remain in the highest level of escalation. How is it that you can reasonably reassure yourself that the level of challenge at the health board level is sufficient to the level of peril faced by the health board so we can maintain public confidence?”
“I also want to ask about the scrutiny of the decisions made by health boards. As you rightly say, it's not reasonable for a health Minister to oversee individual decisions, and the old Aneurin Bevan line about the sound of a bedpan should reverberate around Whitehall is long out of date. But you do appoint the chair of the health board, and the health board chair runs the non-executive side of the health board. Last Friday night in Llanelli, the minor injuries unit was shut at 8 p.m. for the first time. It didn't open until 8 a.m. the next morning and it'll stay that way for six months. I was told about that the day it was published in the board papers as a fait accompli. The public board discussion of that was superficial, I would say, at the very best.”