Wales should get £4bn HS2 compensation – Plaid Cymru
BBC
Wales should get an extra £4bn in funding from the HS2 rail project and more control over its natural resources, Plaid Cymru’s leader has said.
Party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth called for “fair” funding for Wales and a £20 a week increase to child benefit in its manifesto for the general election.
He backed a “fairer” tax system system with increased windfall taxes on energy companies at the manifesto launch in Cardiff, and for powers over policing to be handed to the Senedd.
Mr ap Iorwerth appealed to Welsh voters not to give Labour a “free pass” in the general election.
Plaid Cymru won four seats in Westminster at the last election in 2019.
After boundary changes, Plaid is defending two constituencies – Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ceredigion Preseli.
It also hopes to fend off Labour and the Conservatives to gain another two target seats in Caerfyrddin and Ynys Mon.
Plaid would need to work with another party in Westminster to make its policies a reality.
Speaking in Cardiff on Thursday, Mr ap Iorwerth said the current system of funding for Wales had “lost out to the tune of billions over the years”.
He called for the Barnett formula, which governs how much money the Welsh government receives and is based on population, to be abolished and replaced with the system which is based on the country’s needs.
“It’s not a begging bowl, it’s just what’s right,” he said, “enabling investment in public services and the economy.”
He said of Labour: “The Tories are finished, but we can influence the change ahead of us. Keeping the Labour government in check.
“Not giving them a free pass to take Welsh votes but then cast Wales’ interests aside.”
Plaid Cymru says Wales is owed £4bn from HS2, which is designated an England and Wales project despite ending in Birmingham.
The way it has been classified means that there is not extra funding for the Welsh government as a result of spending on the multi-billion project project.
Plaid – who are in opposition in the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff – say the extra cash would allow Wales to invest in improving public transport and reverse cuts to bus services.
The manifesto said an extra £20 on child benefit a week, which it said would take 60,000 children out of poverty.
On the Today Programme, Plaid Cymru general election candidate Liz Saville Roberts said the party was also looking to re-enter the European Union.
She said Wales was “kept in a state of continuous structural inequality within the United Kingdom”.
So the “logical answer,” she added, was to “improve our relationship with our nearest neighbours, which of course is to re-join the single market and the customs union”.
After boundary changes, Plaid is defending two constituencies: Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ceredigion Preseli.
It also hopes to fend off Labour and the Conservatives to gain another two target seats: Caerfyrddin and Ynys Mon.
Mr ap Iorwerth was appointed Plaid leader last June when his predecessor Adam Price stood down after a damning report into allegations of misogyny within the party.
Last month he led his party out of a co-operation agreement with Vaughan Gething’s Welsh Labour government.
