Welsh Government loses first budget vote in Senedd defeat
The Welsh Government’s first supplementary budget has failed to pass in the Senedd, after a dispute over funding for additional learning needs left Plaid Cymru without the cross-party support it needed.
The vote was the first real test of how the minority Plaid Cymru government, less than 100 days into office, would manage its reliance on other parties to get its spending plans through. It has now lost that test.
The budget had proposed £294 million in extra funding, including £145 million for the NHS, £55 million to expand funded childcare for two-year-olds, and £15 million to extend free school meals to more secondary school pupils.
Its defeat followed a row over how much of a separate £340 million consequential payment, received by the Welsh Government after the UK Government wrote off historic additional learning needs debts run up by councils in England, should be directed to additional learning needs support here.
Welsh councils were not permitted to run up equivalent debt, and the Welsh Government chose not to pass the consequential funding directly to local authorities, a decision that drew criticism from councils, headteachers and politicians across the Senedd.
The row had already surfaced earlier in the same sitting. Lynne Neagle MS told the Business Statement that NAHT Cymru and ASCL Cymru had formally declared a trade dispute with the Welsh Government the previous day, over additional learning needs funding among other issues, and asked for a statement on how the disputes would be resolved.
Responding on behalf of the Government, the Trefnydd, Heledd Fychan, set out the offer on the table.
“There is now a pathway this afternoon for yourselves, ourselves, to join forces and unlock the substantial additional funding for ALN this year and in future years,” she said. “£40 million for ALN today; £40 million the following year; £40 million.”
Labour had wanted £100 million allocated this year specifically, against Plaid’s offer of £40 million a year over three years, a total of £120 million.
Hours before the vote, Ken Skates MS, interim leader of Welsh Labour, issued a statement asking the First Minister to withdraw the supplementary budget rather than proceed to a vote.
“I have written to the First Minister asking him to withdraw the supplementary budget today,” Mr Skates said. “By withdrawing the budget today, we hope that they will resolve these issues with teaching unions and bring back another supplementary budget in the summer, with £100m allocated for ALN.”
The Government did not withdraw the budget. Earlier in the day, during questions to the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution, Reform’s Cai Parry-Jones had already pressed the Government on whether it had the numbers to pass it.
Dafydd Trystan Davies replied that he could count, and said he hoped for cross-Senedd support. The budget went to a vote regardless, and fell.
Following the vote, Elin Jones, Cabinet Minister for Finance, said the Government remained committed to its spending priorities and would continue to engage with other Senedd parties as it develops its autumn spending plans.
Reaction from opposition parties was sharply critical. Ken Skates said the funding on offer for additional learning needs was not enough, and that Labour still wanted to see the NHS waiting list funding delivered, urging the Government to renegotiate and bring back fresh proposals.
Reform UK Wales leader Dan Thomas said the vote showed the Government had lost the Senedd’s confidence in its own budget.
Reform’s Cai Parry-Jones said a government unable to pass its own budget had lost control of public finances, and cited nursing and paramedic funding and the allocation of additional learning needs money as sticking points.
Conservative shadow finance minister Sam Rowlands, who represents Fflint Wrecsam, said the budget offered nothing for small businesses or farmers, and that none of the additional learning needs consequential funding had been allocated to ALN support.
TUC Cymru general secretary Laura Doel called for the Government to return to the negotiating table, saying public services across Wales needed adequate investment to keep delivering for staff and communities.
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