Responding to today’s UK Budget, YesCymru says the real barrier to progress is the Westminster establishment itself, with Wales ignored yet again even with Labour in government in both Westminster and the Senedd.

YesCymru Chair, Phyl Griffiths, said:

“Today’s Budget has shown that the promised ‘Red Welsh Way’ leads straight to a Westminster dead end. Labour in Wales set out modest demands, and Westminster has ignored them yet again. If a Labour Government in Westminster cannot even meet the requests of a Labour Government in Wales, then the message is clear - Westminster will never work for Wales.”

At the Welsh Labour conference earlier this year, delegates backed a clear set of demands, echoing calls already made by First Minister Eluned Morgan in her ‘Red Welsh Way’ speech.

Delegates called for the full devolution of the Crown Estate, allowing Wales to benefit directly from offshore wind revenues. They also demanded a new, fair and needs-based funding formula to replace the Barnett Formula, which the First Minister has said “does not work for Wales”, and insisted that Wales receive “every penny it is due” to support public services.

In her Red Welsh Way speech, the First Minister also made a clear call for fair rail investment, demanding an end to long-standing underfunding and the injustice of HS2 being treated as an “England and Wales” project, and urging the UK Government to put Wales “at the front of the queue” for rail infrastructure funding.

Despite clear and reasonable requests from the Welsh Government, today’s UK Budget has ignored calls to transfer the Crown Estate to Wales, deliver fair funding and replace the Barnett formula, and end the injustice and underfunding of rail investment.

YesCymru said this Budget continues a long pattern of Westminster decisions that have neglected Wales. Thatcher-era industrial policies devastated Welsh communities, decades of Barnett underfunding have held public services back, and the HS2 misclassification has denied Wales around £6.7 billion. Taken together, the pattern is clear: Wales has never received, and will never receive, what it is owed from Westminster.

YesCymru Chair, Phyl Griffiths, added:

“The people of Wales have had enough of being told there’s a path forward, only to find the road blocked at every turn. Only independence will give Wales the powers to deliver for its communities.”