Owen Smith
Main Page: Owen Smith (Labour - Pontypridd)Department Debates - View all Owen Smith's debates with the Wales Office
(9 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Alun Cairns
As the right hon. Gentleman was part of the previous Government, he should apologise for leaving Wales the poorest part of the United Kingdom. He should further apologise for the fact that wages fell at the sharpest rate between 2008 and 2009. The Government’s long-term economic plan is working for Wales, and wages are rising quicker in Wales than across the rest of the United Kingdom.
Owen Smith (Pontypridd) (Lab)
The Minister knows that low wages and poor jobs affect not just individuals and their families, but the public finances. Will he tell us what has happened to tax receipts and welfare spending in Wales since his Government came to power?
Alun Cairns
We will receive a statement from my right hon. Friend the Chancellor a little later which will cover the UK financial position, but I hope the hon. Gentleman, who is the shadow Secretary of State for Wales, will welcome the progress that the Government are making in reducing unemployment and in growing wages in Wales.
Owen Smith
The Minister does not need to wait for the autumn statement, because the numbers are publicly available. Tax receipts in Wales have fallen by £2 billion since 2010, and benefit spending has gone up by £1.5 billion. That has piled an extra £6,000-worth of borrowing on every Welsh worker, and what have they got for it? They have got a twentyfold increase in food bank usage, the lowest wages in Wales and a cost of living crisis. The Tories have failed on the deficit, failed on the cost of living crisis, and they are failing in Wales once again.
Alun Cairns
The shadow Secretary of State has clearly got his facts wrong. The long-term economic plan is working for Wales. If there has been a reduction in tax receipts from Wales, it is because of our increase in the personal allowance, under which next year the average worker will pay less than £800 as a result, taking 155,000 people in Wales out of income tax altogether by next April.