Welsh Conservatives look west

I’M delighted to be serving as the Shadow Minister for West Wales, a role created by the Welsh Conservatives. This role is a statement of priorities from the Welsh Conservatives. It’s a statement that we feel West Wales has not been given sufficient attention by the Welsh Labour Government. But it’s more than just a statement. It’s a commitment to West Wales.

Under Labour, the Welsh Government has been a government primarily of and for South Wales. Every First Minister of Wales has represented a South Wales constituency, and four of them have represented Cardiff constituencies.

In fact, the furthest from Cardiff Bay a First Minister has ever come is Bridgend, so Labour has managed to get one from just 22 miles outside of

Cardiff.

But the Welsh Conservatives want to be a government for all of Wales. We have MSs from South Wales, but we also have a strong presence in West Wales, North Wales and Mid Wales. We have a track record of delivering for those communities and standing up for them against a Labour Government that too often forgets that Wales exists outside of the M4 corridor.

One example is farming. Many people in our rural communities feel like they aren’t being listened to by a Labour Welsh Government that is going to force farmers to give up 20% of their land for tree planting and rewilding. Those plans fall within the so-called Sustainable Farming Scheme, a Labour policy that could cost up to 5,500 jobs in the Welsh farming sector.

As we know, West Wales will be disproportionately impacted by those job losses. So much of our economy and culture here depend on the world-class farming our communities practice every day.

Our farmers are the guardians of the countryside, and they shouldn’t have their livelihoods threatened by legislation drawn up by people who don’t understand the industry.

And it’s not just farming. In West Wales, access to vital health services is a huge problem. When the Welsh Government announced the closure of the Special Care Baby Unit at Withybush Hospital in 2014, I warned that we were on a slippery slope that would lead to further closures in the future. The Health Minister at the time told me it wouldn’t be the case, but we know now that it was.

At the end of last year, families in Pembrokeshire were dealt a fresh blow when Hywel Dda University Health Board decided to close the Paediatric Ambulatory Care Unit at Withybush Hospital, which was another of a series of devastating cuts to the hospital’s services in recent years.

Yet again, people in Pembrokeshire are forced to travel for crucial health services.

But in my new role, I want to commit to addressing not just the problems we face but also the opportunities.

The Celtic Freeport at Milford Haven and Port Talbot will allow firms to benefit from duty relief while also exploiting renewable energy opportunities. This will be a game changer for our local economy, giving our young people the chance to stay in West Wales rather than having to look east for employment opportunities.

So in my role as Shadow Minister for West Wales, I will take a keen interest in how the project develops and how governments in Cardiff Bay and in Westminster can ensure that the opportunities presented by the Celtic Freeport are seized and benefit the people of West Wales. The freeport has been a success story of how governments on both sides of the M4 can work together, and it’s an exciting time for the local economy.

Without a government in Cardiff Bay that can relate to the lives of people in West Wales, we will continue to be an afterthought.

The Welsh Conservatives are prepared to be a government for all of Wales.