A Conservative ex-UK Government minister has admitted that the Welsh public were deliberately misled about how replacement money for former EU funds would be spent in Wales.
Quoted in new book, Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK? former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns admitted that the Conservative Government never intended for decisions on the spending of the replacement EU cash to remain in Wales. Wales used to receive a huge amount of money from the EU before Brexit.
As part of their 2019 general election campaign the Conservatives promised that Wales would receive "not a penny less" as a result of Brexit. Many people took this to mean that the Welsh Government would have a role in allocating this money (as they have done for 22 years as part of the EU). However, the UK Government has recently confirmed that it will allocate these funds directly through its new Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF). You can get more politics news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Read more: Nine things you need to consider when deciding whether to support an independent Wales
This has been an incredibly controversial issue in Wales with many arguing that not keeping the decision making in Wales is a row back on a manifesto pledge. Though the Conservatives can rightly argue that the cash is still coming to Wales, Mr Cairns has admitted that they knew they were being deceptive.
Speaking in the book, Independent Nation, Mr Cairns said: "Boris was on board. When he came down to a hustings debate [before the 2019 election], we were briefing him and I said: ‘You will get the question, about European aid, [and] in the manifesto we have got to make the commitment that there won’t be a penny less.’ To quote, Boris said to me: ‘We want to control that, don’t we?’ and I said: ‘Yes, but you can’t say that… because it will really spark a political debate in Wales, because we haven’t yet explained the commitment that you get the same money but it will be localised to a greater degree than the centralised approach that you get for the Welsh government.’ I said to the Prime Minister: ‘The answer you’ve got to give’ – and he stuck to it absolutely – ‘is that we’ll be using good Conservative principles on how it should be spent.’ And if you look back to the quotes, that’s exactly what he said in his answer. You know, not once did we deny it, but we hadn’t laid the ground to explain."
Mr Cairns added with a laugh: ‘I’ve been very candid here’.
The comments demonstrate that the Conservative party knew full well what the reaction would be if people in Wales knew that the plan was for former EU funds to be allocated by Westminster as opposed to the Welsh Government (which had been central to deciding how European money would be spent since 1999).
He knew that the assumption would be, when they promised ‘not a penny less’, was that this money would be going to the devolved administrations, and he didn’t want people to know this was not the UK government’s intention. The reaction of Boris Johnson is also telling. ‘We want to control that, don’t we?’ he said.
Mr Cairns argued that the UK government having the money was in fact a way to ensure localisation. To use his words: ‘It will be localised to a greater degree than the centralised approach that you get for the Welsh government.’ But in his book, Will Hayward argues: "He had no idea how the Welsh Government planned to use this money, because the Welsh Government didn’t know themselves. He had no conversation, no engagement, no respect for devolution. It was the assumption that ‘Westminster knows best’, and what makes it all the worse is that they knew there would be push back, so they used sleight of hand and word play to avoid fronting up to their own plans and to try to gain in Welsh votes."
Independent Nation by Will Hayward published by Biteback Publishing for £20. Buy your copy here for only £15.99 using promo code WO15.
Commenting on the revelations shadow secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens MP said: "This admission proves yet again that you can never trust a single word Conservative ministers say. Time and again, the Tories repeated their manifesto promise that Wales would not receive a penny less in post-EU funding. This includes not only Boris Johnson, but former Secretaries of State for Wales Alun Cairns and Simon Hart, and current Wales Minister David TC Davies.
"As well as breaking their promise of “not a penny less” the cat is now out of the bag that they knew people thought the money, like the EU funding it was to replace, would go to Welsh Government to decide how to spend and they deliberately concealed the fact that it wouldn’t. Both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been part of this Tory government deceit. Whichever of them becomes Prime Minister next week, they won’t change. Only Labour can deliver the fresh start the country needs."
The UK Government is actually currently struggling to facilitate the Shared Prosperity Fund that used to be administered in Wales. The Welsh Government recently refused to offer technical support when the UK Government starts allocating the former EU funds in Wales.
The Welsh Government has been responsible for assessing the merits of projects in Wales that could potentially receive EU money for more than two decades. This means it has experienced teams of people who the Welsh Government says are well-placed to know what is needed in particular parts of Wales. The Welsh Government says that it having control of this money minimises duplication of projects than would be the case with both the Welsh and UK Governments giving out money.
Under the Shared Prosperity Fund individual councils will be able to apply for funding and will often be competing with each other. The UK Government is currently in the process of hiring civil servants to assess the merits of these applications and wants the Welsh Government to use its existing pool of experienced staff to assist. The Welsh Government has refused, saying it "will not deploy their own resources" to help.
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