On the BBC Wales website the new leader of the Welsh Labour Assembly Group, Carwyn Jones says it would be difficult to have a “constructive relationship” with a future Tory UK government which cut public services.
However, what is more surprising is the reaction of Monmouthshire Conservative MP, David Davies who goes further than any Tory has done before in spelling out how his party in government would treat a better empowered Welsh Assembly:
“Providing of course that Wales remains a part of the United Kingdom. And it’s Labour that gave us devolution and then the new Government of Wales Act without a referendum and they are now talking about trying to give the Welsh assembly even further powers through some sort of referendum, which I suspect will be heavily rigged.
“The more powers Wales develops and the closer to independence it gets the harder it will be justify large amounts of English taxpayers’ money being given to the Welsh assembly.
“There are obviously going to be public spending cuts throughout every area of the public sector.
“That’s going to happen whether we have a Labour or Conservative government.
“There’s no point in shying away from that because we are borrowing at a rate of £200bn a year and we are not going to be able to get the money for much longer.
“But there’s no reason to fear specific cuts in Wales providing of course we don’t go any further down the route to independence.”
What these words amount to in my view is a specific threat that a ‘yes’ vote in any future referendum to allow the Welsh Assembly to move to limited law making powers under Part Four of the Government of Wales Act would be considered as an unacceptable step towards independence. As far as David Davies is concerned such an outcome would have consequences for the amount of money the Assembly might receive from Westminister and its relations with a Tory government.
The suggestion that a referendum might be ‘rigged’ is disgraceful enough. It will of course be run by the impartial Electoral Commission. But the implied threat associated with a ‘yes’ vote is nothing short of political thuggery.
Clearly if there was an independent Wales nobody would expect the UK Treasury to subsidise it but that is not on the table. Maybe David Cameron and Cheryl Gillan should say whether David Davies speaks for his party on this or whether he is once more ploughing a lone furrow.
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