Welsh Conservatives hold government to account over £1bn it has wasted in Wales

The Welsh-Conservative debate today (September 30) – led by Angela Burns MS, the Shadow Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency – highlighted the profligacy of the Welsh Labour-led Government.

Mrs Burns began simply and powerfully, saying:

“The motion tabled by the Welsh Conservatives today is very clear: do not waste the taxpayer’s money.”

She went on to detail the £1 billion squandered by the Labour Party – and its partners in Plaid and the LibDems – in Wales over just 10 years. The £1bn includes:

• £221m on uncompetitive Enterprise Zones
• £9.3m on flawed initial funding of the Circuit of Wales
• £97.9m on delays and overspend on the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road
• £157m on the M4 relief road inquiry
• Over £100m on propping up Cardiff Airport

Mrs Burns asked:

“Would you trust anyone who wasted a billion pounds of your money?”

She spoke, too, of “…devils to be found in the detail, the lesser-known screw ups”.

These, she said, were:

“Where there were no clear objectives, where there was no real capacity to scale up success, where there was no commitment to long-term sustainability, where the projects that were failing were not terminated promptly enough, where scrutiny was ad hoc or non-existent or not reviewed by the people with authority or guts to make the hard decisions.”

Speaking after the debate, Mrs Burns said:

“I’m disappointed, but not surprised, that those across the floor in the Labour Party – and Plaid and the LibDem Member – chose not to support our motion, because to do so would have shone too bright a light on the waste of successive Welsh Labour-led Governments, and this is something they clearly want to hide as we approach the 2021 elections.

 “They might try to hide the facts, the waste, the £1bn squandered, and a truth they can’t handle, but they can’t.

 “We Welsh Conservatives will continue to let the people of Wales know just who they could be voting in next year. For the sake of Wales, its people, and its economy it must be the Welsh Conservatives.”