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Legislative Programme and Budget Statement (Wales)

My right hon. Friend, a former Secretary of State like me, makes a telling and convincing point, as always. In fact, yet again the Conservatives are turning Wales into the great ignored nation. As First Minister Carwyn Jones said, there is no longer a strong voice for Wales at the Cabinet table. Scotland has had a generous reform of the Barnett formula in legislation following the Calman commission and, on top of that, the fossil fuel levy, but there is nothing whatsoever for Wales from this Government. There has been no mention so far of the Holtham commission reforms, despite the belated reference today by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The right hon. Lady could not even persuade her new Tory-Liberal Cabinet colleagues to honour the agreement that I negotiated with the Treasury to protect Wales. Instead of taking forward the Holtham proposals, she has broken a pre-election promise and dumped them in the long grass. She is a weak Secretary of State, doing what Tories do best of all—weakening Wales.