Welsh Labour has inked a Senedd budget deal with its vocal opponents Plaid Cymru. Here comes the rainbow coalition…
As May comes down the track the two parties are working out a formal arrangement to support each other – Labour has lost its majority and a Budget vote is incoming in January. Labour is predicted to be hit hard in the local elections…
Reform and the Tories have hit out at the plans. Reform:
“This is more evidence that a vote for Plaid next year is a vote for Labour. While Labour find themselves without a paddle, Plaid have stepped in yet again to save them. The only way to get real change in Wales is with Reform.”
Welsh Tory leader Darren Millar:
“Yet again, it appears that the Welsh Government is set to pass a budget that falls short, thanks to another Plaid-Labour stitch up. Labour and Plaid’s deal will mean yet more of the same wasteful spending on extra politicians, overseas embassies and trees, instead of focusing resources on the priorities of the people of Wales, and putting more cash into people’s pockets. It’s clear that only the Welsh Conservatives can be trusted to end the Labour-Plaid axis in Wales and deliver a credible plan to fix Wales.”
All to play for in May…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”