'Wales needs a new, fairer funding settlement | Rhun ap Iorwerth'

There can be no denying that 2024 has been a notable year for politics globally. More than 100 elections have been held around the world, and it is no secret that I am happier about the results of some of them than others. We wait to see what kind of world will emerge after January 6^th, 2025.

In Wales, of course, 2024 was the year of a General Election in which we were promised plentiful rewards flowing from having two Labour governments, one at either end of the M4, working together.

But how little change this year’s ‘change election’ has delivered. Decisions to keep the two child benefit cap and to cut the winter fuel payment have shown that the politics of austerity is here to stay, punishing the most vulnerable and keeping tens of thousands trapped in poverty.

And eye-watering new taxes on jobs in both the private and public sectors and on the family farm risk throttling the kind of economic growth Starmer and Reeves claim is their number one priority.

Against this backdrop, the ‘clear red water’ that the Labour Welsh Government has always insisted separates the Labour Party offices in Cardiff and London has well and truly run dry. After a year full of turmoil for the Labour Party in Wales – which saw three different leaders in almost as many months – it is abundantly clear that it has run out of energy and ideas.

If Labour won’t stand up for Wales – and it’s clearly lost the will to do so – then Plaid Cymru will.

Plaid Cymru is using a debate in the Senedd today to once again call on Labour to commit to a new Wales Bill, one that would replace the out-dated Barnett formula with a new, fairer funding settlement, and place Wales on a level playing field with Scotland by giving us the same tools for the job – the same devolved powers – on the Crown Estate, rail infrastructure and justice and policing, among others.

Scotland has shown that additional powers are not just constitutional nice-to-haves. By using powers that we in Wales lack, the SNP Government has announced plans to restore the winter fuel payment in full and remove the two child benefit cap. There is no reason that we should not be in a position to do the same in Wales.

Our proposals for a new Wales Bill are about ensuring we have more of the tools we need to make meaningful changes to people’s lives in Wales. Ownership over the Crown Estate, for example, is about having the ability to set the terms of renewable energy generation in Wales, establish a sovereign wealth fund to invest in infrastructure and, ultimately, ensure that our communities feel the real benefits of Wales’ abundance of natural resources.

These are all things on which Labour used to agree with us, but First Minister Eluned Morgan is now resolutely refusing to support our call to strengthen and enhance devolution in Wales in this bold way. Precisely at the time that we are being asked to believe that a new ‘Partnership in Power’ means that Wales’ voice is being heard in Westminster, Labour in Wales has fallen silent.

All of our proposals on further devolution are reflected in the recommendations of the cross-party Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, published at the beginning of this tumultuous year. I believed then, and I still do, that the publication of the Commission’s report was a landmark moment in our political and constitutional journey.

On the basis of both expert opinion and intensive public engagement, it put in writing what I have long known: that this is not as good as it gets for Wales. Crucially, of course, it affirmed that independence is perfectly viable, and that it offers a pathway to finally and fully realising our potential as a nation. I am more convinced of this than ever, and am committed to doing all I can to bring others along on this exciting journey of hope.

It bears repeating, of course, that the Labour Welsh Government joined Plaid Cymru in welcoming the Constitutional Commission’s findings, and in accepting its recommendations unequivocally and in full. I was pleased that were able to agree a structure and funding to take forward recommendations on protecting and strengthening Welsh democracy: a task that has become ever more urgent over the course of 2024.

I am even more encouraged by last month’s announcement that Dr Anwen Elias – an expert in deliberative democracy and a former member of the Constitutional Commission – will be leading on this work. She will be an excellent chair of the Innovating Democracy Advisory Group, and it is also appropriate that the Group will be recruited through an open competition, on the basis of expertise and experience in citizen engagement. I look forward to following and engaging with this Group’s work in coming months.

But I am also clear that we need to go much further and faster when it comes to implementing the Constitutional Commission’s recommendations. Not only do these form, in my view, a necessary next step on any road to independence, crucially they are about giving us the tools we need to deal with our current entrenched challenges.

Today the Welsh Government is looking to water down our specific call for parity with Scotland – the absolute least any Welsh Government should be pursuing. It is doubling down on its empty promise to implement the Constitutional Commission’s recommendations: something which they have so far shown no willingness to fight, argue or even ask for in Westminster.

With Labour Ministers in Wales apparently unwilling even to discuss further devolution with their counterparts in London, it has become crystal clear that only Plaid Cymru can really be trusted to fight for Wales when and where it matters.

The work of the Constitutional Commission has put us on the front foot when it comes to thinking about our nation’s future. But events both nationally and globally in 2024 show that it would irresponsible for us not to continue to build on this work. We need to continue to develop understanding of the key political and economic trends that are and will impact on Wales in order to give us the tools we need to make informed decisions about our constitutional future.

It is for this reason that Plaid Cymru is proposing the establishment of a standing National Commission – modelled on the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales, and learning in particular from its innovative approach to citizen engagement. I am also clear that the right to decide on our own constitutional future can and should be devolved. The right to determine the future of Wales belongs to the people of Wales.

I will never be shy in fighting for what I know to be in the best interests of our people and our communities. On this I am determined. I am not willing to take ‘no’ for an answer. And of course, I have no party bosses in London asking me not to ask the difficult questions in the first place.

As First Minister, I’d seek a positive relationship with the UK Prime Minister, of course, but a Plaid Cymru leader would always be ready to challenge to get the best for Wales. Without challenge there will be no change.

In 18 months’ time, you will have an opportunity to elect a Government that will always and only ever put Wales first. This week, we are calling for parity with Scotland, and the tools we need to grow our economy, tackle poverty and deliver real fairness for Wales. This is the absolute least that Wales deserves.