You only have to see Boris Johnson's smirk under fire in Prime Minister's Questions to know that this is a man who has enjoyed the bruising side of politics. It's a quality that might have helped him cope with criticism in the Commons but it has been a disaster for Wales and for devolution.
Throughout his leadership, Johnson appears to have treated the Labour-led Welsh Government as one of his (many) political enemies. He has sought to undermine them politically, restrict their ability to make decisions and deny them the right to spend public money that had once been theirs to dispense.
The problem for all of us is that in doing this, he has not just been attacking a political rival but attacking the very principle of devolution which has been so popular among people of all political persuasions in Wales and has been so relentlessly supported over the last 23 years.
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Whoever succeeds Johnson as Prime Minister must recognise that devolution is not a toy to deny a political opponent but a fundamental right that the people of Wales have repeatedly voted for.
There have been two referendums on devolution in the past 25 years and they both came down on the side of more powers to Wales. The most recent of these was by a substantial margin of over 63%. The Welsh have consistently returned pro-devolution parties in the Senedd with the election last year seeing anti-devo parties wiped out.
The first place that Mr Johnson's successor must start is with the trade union legislation that the UK government announced which will actively undermine laws set by the Senedd. When this was announced parts of social media exploded. They saw this is a clear assault on the devolution settlement and the ability to make key decisions on public services here in Wales.
Some described this as a “Rubicon moment” with Westminster seeking to roll back the devolution of many political powers that people in Wales have fought for over many decades.
This issue in many ways sums up the many sides of the repeated swipes of the Johnson administration at the devolved settlement and is worthy of closer attention.
In 2017 the Senedd passed the Trade Union (Wales) Bill. This law meant a few things, one of which was that in the event of a strike by devolved public sector workers (such as health or education workers), the Welsh Government would not be able to use agency workers to cover the striking staff. This would also apply to the rail company Transport for Wales which the Welsh Government own.
Media reports and First Minister Mark Drakeford have focussed on the agency staff element of the bill but at present there has been very little clarification over what exactly the plans by the UK Gov will actually do.
The UK Government hasn't actually said what part of the act they will be looking to overturn. The act brought in by the Welsh Government includes removing a 40% support threshold for strike ballots, restrictions affecting time off work for union activities and the ability to take union subscriptions directly from pay packets.
To try and get some clarity WalesOnline approached the UK Government, specifically the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. We asked them for exactly how the proposed new laws would affect the bill passed in Wales half a decade ago.
In response a UK government spokesperson said:“While we continue to work with the Welsh Government in a number of areas, it has always been the case that employment and industrial relations law is a reserved matter for the UK Government. It is right that we seek to apply trade union law equally and fairly across Britain to ensure that services, such as train lines, are run as effectively as possible.”
Now clearly this doesn’t answer the question we asked them at all. So we went back to them again asking: “Will this apply to all parts of the Trade Union (Wales) bill? Will all elements of it be removed or just the agency worker element?”
We were then told that they were not able to go further than their statement at the moment. This whole affair is really insightful for how devolution is being undermined in Wales. So let’s take a look.
Not all of the attacks actually significantly change the way Wales is governed
Though every time the Boris Johnson's administration has thumbed their nose at Welsh autonomy it is painted in some quarters as a dire threat to devolution the practical realities are often nothing of the kind. Take the trade union bill.
What impact will the lifting of the ban on agency workers actually have on the ground in Wales? What difference will people in Wales see as a result? Well on the single issue of agency workers being brought in to cover strikers, the answer is “absolutely naff all”. Nothing will change.
Ultimately this rule (brought in by the Labour Welsh Government) stopped the Labour Welsh Government from using agency staff in the result of a strike. If there was to be a strike by devolved public sector workers tomorrow, the Welsh Government could still choose not to hire agency workers. The only difference is that they won’t be required to by laws. The idea of a Welsh Labour Government doing this is fairly unlikely though of course there won’t necessarily always be a Welsh Labour Government in Wales.
For all the talk of undermining devolution, the Welsh Government is still running Wales’ hospitals and schools. The UK Government hasn’t started to build the M4 relief road despite Welsh Government opposition (though Prime Minister Johnson always shouts about how keen he is to do this when asked any question about Wales in the Commons).
Taken in isolation perhaps the attempt to remove Wales’ trade union bill could be shrugged off. But it has to be set against the backdrop of the UK Government’s ongoing disdain, boarding on contempt for devolution. In just the last few years we have had the Boris Johnson (the self appointed Minister of the Union) say that devolution was “a disaster”. Jacob Rees-Mogg called senior devolved politicians “lightweight”, the centralising of formally EU funds away from the devolved administrations and the Internal Market Bill which massively curtails the ability of those administrations to do anything different Westminster when it comes to standards (this last point is a really big deal).
Devolution is popular in Wales. The UK Government knows this and is therefore not attacking it in a way that protests could break out of the political bubble and into the wider public area. It will likely never directly repeal devolution, rather subjecting it to death by 1,000 cuts until the devolved administrations are reduced to nothing more than glorified councils.
It is important to say that the UK Government is breaking no rules. This area is reserved to them. They are perfectly within their rights, legally, to make these changes. But whatever their constitutional rights, it is worth pointing out there is no way in hell the Conservatives would ever pull the same stunt against Scotland. It has been a running theme for decades that the Welsh receive a bum deal compared to the Scots. Whether that be over rail funding for HS2 or the fact that historically Wales has had secretaries of state who are neither Welsh or from a Welsh constituency (an unthinkable state of affairs we were talking about Scotland), Wales has always been less important in Westminster than Scotland.
Red meat and an afterthought
Now it is perfectly feasible to argue that ultimately, this has all just been posturing and politics. The removal of the trade union bill is simply some red meat for the right of the Tory party and it may have very little day to day effect in Wales itself. But this ignores the fact that the right of the Tory party and its insatiable appetite for red meat has been guiding the direction of the British state for over seven years. It isn’t just Westminster politicking, it has a direct effect on all our lives.
Nowhere is the utter disdain in which Wales and devolution is held more in evidence than in the UK Gov response to WalesOnline’s request for clarity. In their haste to make the announcement about trade unions for a short term boost and a good headline on the homepage of Conservative Home they announced a policy attacking Welsh autonomy without any real thought given to what part of the bill they were removing. They hadn’t really thought about it.
People in Wales have repeatedly voted for devolution. If the next Prime Minister really believes in respecting the democratic will of the people, they need to start doing it regarding the component nations' right to manage many of their own affairs. This means respecting, rather than just tolerating the existence of, the democratically elected administrations within those nations.
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