SENEDD APPROVES 'SHAMEFUL' £120MILLION WELSH LABOUR 'POWER GRAB'

Wales's Labour-dominated Senedd has been blasted after approving a £120million 'power grab' plan to dramatically increase its size and upturn the voting system.

The assembly in Cardiff tonight backed a proposal to increase membership from 60 to 96, an increase of more than 60 per cent.

Elections will also take place every four years, instead of every five years, under a fully proportional representation system after Labour and the nationalists Plaid Cymru backed the change.

Members of the Senedd this evening backed the changes by 43 votes in favour to 16 against.

Plaid leader Adam Price called the change 'a step towards independence'.  

But critics have pointed out the £120million overhaul is equivalent to the House of Commons being expanded from 650 MPs to more than 2,000.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies branded the change 'a national embarrassment' after pleas to put the change to a referendum were ignored.

'Our Welsh NHS is on its knees, educational attainment is collapsing and employment numbers are plummeting, but this vanity project is Labour and Plaid's top priority,' he said after the vote. 

'The Welsh Conservatives would reverse these plans and spend the money on our health service instead.'

And Tory Senedd member Darren Millar said the change was 'the biggest power grab' that Wales had seen.

Currently in Wales there are 40 constituencies electing a single representative by first-past-the-post and 20 additional members chosen proportionally from five regions.

Under the new system there will be 16 enlarged constituencies, with six members elected in each area using the D'Hondt formula, which is currently used to elect the 20 additional members.

Instead of five-year terms, MSs will be elected for four-year terms and all candidates will have to live in Wales.

The maximum number of ministers appointed by the party forming the Government will be increased from 12 to 17, and there will be two deputy presiding officers instead of the current one.

|The changes will come into effect for the next set of elections in 2026.

Figures have suggested full implementation over the next eight years could cost £120million, although the true bill is uncertain.

Welsh Secretary David TC Davies posted on the X site: 'Today should be a reflection for the Labour Welsh Government to rethink their 'priorities'. 

'Spending tens of millions on a 20mph default speed limit& forcing NHS to make over £60million cuts to then spend over £100million on creating more Senedd Members should not be priorities.' 

Earlier this year, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt voiced 'shock' at the plan.

She said an equivalent move for the UK Parliament on the same constituent-to-politician ratio would result in an increase from 650 MPs to 2,058.

'Just to put this in context, on the same constituent-to-politician ratio as the plan they are outlining in Wales, if that were transferred to the House of Commons this chamber would have to accommodate 2,058 Members of Parliament,' she said.

'That is Labour's blueprint for governing Britain I think.'

The Welsh Government had argued that Wales is the 'most under-represented country in the UK', even before the number of Welsh MPs are reduced from 40 to 32 under boundary reviews.

It insists the changes can 'create a modern Senedd better able to represent the people of Wales'.

Meanwhile, former Scottish deputy first minister Jim Wallace has said the number of MSPs at Holyrood 'needs to be looked at again'.

The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader played a key role in determining the number of MSPs who would sit in the Scottish Parliament when it was established back in 1999, being involved in negotiations with Labour's George Robertson on the matter.

'George Robertson and I had a haggle about what the numbers would be,' he said.

'He wanted 113, I wanted 145, and we got 129. It was meeting in the middle...

'I think now the Parliament requires significantly more, it has more responsibilities, not least for tax and social security.

'I think 129 needs to be looked at again.'

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2024-05-08T17:54:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd