We spoke to the Secretary of State for Wales, David TC Davies, and Jo Stevens who’s the shadow Welsh secretary. We started with the information that Tata is taking steps to close down the blast furnaces at its Port Talbot metal plant before deliberate.
Ciaran Jenkins: Jo Stevens, to you first. You may be the Welsh secretary subsequent Friday. Subsequent Sunday, Tata may begin this course of before deliberate. Would you have the ability to do something to undo it?
Jo Stevens: What I’d repeat to Tata, which is what I’ve been saying to them and Keir Starmer has been saying to them for a lot of months, is please don’t make any irreversible selections earlier than the election, and that would come with shutting down the blast furnace early. And I’d simply urge them to take a seat around the desk with the unions and attempt to negotiate a means out of this, as a result of there are practically 3,000 jobs in danger right here, and I’m involved about individuals’s livelihoods proper throughout South Wales.
Ciaran Jenkins: Feels like they’ve made that irreversible determination, and that’s going to be 3,000 jobs misplaced, with the method beginning at the very least two days into your tenure.
Jo Stevens: It doesn’t must occur, and that’s why there ought to be grown-up discussions, sitting across the desk to attempt to come to some settlement. This isn’t the way in which to cope with it.
Ciaran Jenkins: David TC Davies, you’re the present Welsh secretary. That is in your inbox proper now. What’s your message to Tata Metal tonight?
David TC Davies: My message really is that Tata Metal made it very clear a while in the past that they have been going to shut these blast furnaces as a result of they have been shedding one million and a half a day, and the UK authorities was prepared to provide you with a deal that concerned half a billion kilos of funding to create an arc furnace. This deal will save 5,000 jobs. On high of that, we got here ahead with a fund value £100 million, of which 80 was coming from UK authorities to assist anybody shedding their jobs, possibly 2,800 job losses. It was the one deal round, and I’m sorry that Labour have given false hope to individuals by suggesting that there’s another possibility on the market that might have saved each single a kind of jobs, as a result of there isn’t and there by no means was. And Tata Metal have made that clear to me.
Ciaran Jenkins: Are you continue to going to provide them that half a billion kilos, provided that they introduced these plans ahead? There are jobs on the road proper now.
David TC Davies: The deal was quite simple. Tata have been initially planning to shut down the blast furnaces and pull out of steelmaking utterly in Wales. It will have value 8,000 jobs and one other 12,500 within the provide chain. The deal that we struck was that as they constructed an arc furnace, we’d pay them half a billion kilos in the direction of that. They might be contributing £750 million. So greater than half of the price. And that deal would save 5,000 jobs.
Ciaran Jenkins: Is that cash nonetheless obtainable?
David TC Davies: That deal remains to be obtainable, after all it’s, as a result of we wish to save as many roles as doable, and what we don’t wish to do is undermine funding value £1.2 billion and 5,000 jobs.
Ciaran Jenkins: Let’s transfer on to the election as a result of Wales is correct on the centre of this betting scandal. The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, says he’s livid about it. The candidate within the most secure Tory seat in Wales is implicated on this, and Rishi Sunak says he can’t assist him. Are you livid?
David TC Davies: I’ve seen what’s gone on. I do know there are two Conservative candidates who’ve been suspended and one Labour candidate suspended some other place, not in Wales. The very fact of the matter is, I really feel very disenchanted by what’s gone on, however there are a selection of scandals happening in the mean time, and each political celebration must recognise that there are individuals who’ve not lived as much as the form of requirements that we want, together with the Labour Occasion in the mean time, whose personal first minister is refusing to acknowledge a vote of no confidence after he took £200,000 from a convicted prison whose firm had obtained £400,000 from the Welsh authorities state-backed financial institution.
Ciaran Jenkins: Let’s ask Labour about Labour then, lets? Jo Stevens, David TC Davies was saying that the Welsh Labour first minister has misplaced a vote of confidence within the Senedd. However on high of that, Wales has obtained the worst performing colleges within the UK and the longest ready occasions in historical past in Wales within the NHS. Is {that a} document, particularly in colleges and schooling, that you simply’re pleased with?
Jo Stevens: Ready lists in Wales, in comparison with England, they’re rising in England greater than eight occasions sooner than in Wales. We now have lowered ours by 70%, our lengthy ready occasions within the NHS in Wales. We’ve obtained 310,000 extra individuals in a position to entry a dentist as a result of we’ve renegotiated dental contracts. And on schooling, I’m actually sick and bored with listening to the Tories doing down our academics, our educating workers and our kids, who went by means of such a tough time throughout Covid. They deserve our respect, to not be criticised on a regular basis.
Ciaran Jenkins: Is {that a} sure? You’re pleased with Labour’s document on colleges and hospitals and the NHS in Wales?
Jo Stevens: I settle for, because the Welsh authorities settle for, that there’s extra to do. However there are struggles. There are struggles throughout each a part of the UK by way of schooling and NHS companies. The final time we had two Labour governments at each ends of the M4, we had the shortest ready lists in historical past and the best affected person satisfaction within the historical past of the NHS. We’ve executed it earlier than, we will do it once more.
Ciaran Jenkins: David TC Davies, if voters in Wales are wanting a change, is that change to kick the Conservatives out of workplace?
David TC Davies: I’m sorry, however we’ve really had a Labour authorities right here in Wales for 25 years, so we in Wales know precisely what the blueprint that Keir Starmer refers to truly is. And it’s. Jo can’t get away from this – 20,000 individuals have been ready greater than two years for remedy in a nation of three million individuals. It’s not the Conservatives who’re saying we’ve obtained decrease instructional requirements, it’s the OECD, and Jo can’t even convey herself to acknowledge this. Then on high of this, we see cash being thrown away on issues like £120 million for further Senedd members. That’s cash that might have gone into Port Talbot to assist steelworks and as an alternative we’re getting further politicians. We’ve obtained this ludicrous blanket 20 mile an hour restrict throughout the entire of Wales, which no one needs. Half one million individuals signed a petition calling for that to be scrapped and Labour aren’t listening. That is the blueprint for the remainder of the UK, and that’s why after I exit and I’m speaking to individuals, I’m listening to lots of people say sure, individuals have had issues over issues which have happed during the last 5 years, however a substantial amount of concern in the mean time about this Labour authorities’s insurance policies.
Ciaran Jenkins: Let’s let Jo Stevens reply.
Jo Stevens: What you’re not listening to from the Conservatives on this normal election marketing campaign is something about their document in authorities, and the rationale for that’s it’s been catastrophic for the nation, together with right here in Wales. Crashed the economic system, individuals are dwelling with the results of that every single day. And if of their manifesto, they’ll discover this £71 billion of unfunded spending commitments, they’ll do precisely what Liz Truss did over again.
Ciaran Jenkins: Cling on, they’re your numbers and we all know all about numbers on this election.
Jo Stevens: No, these are unfunded spending commitments, they’re financial savings they’ll’t discover and commitments they’ll’t pay for.
Ciaran Jenkins: Jo Stevens, you could have a document to defend right here. You’ve been in energy for 25 years. And as you heard there, there’s no getting away from it, two 12 months waits within the NHS in Wales, greater than 20,000 individuals, in England it’s 200 and one thing.
Jo Stevens: Welsh Authorities have invested £1 billion further with a purpose to convey down the backlog from the pandemic, and as I’ve mentioned, they’ve come down from their longest waits by 70%. They might be the primary to acknowledge that there’s extra to do. However the reality is the Conservatives can’t run on their document as a result of they haven’t any document to be pleased with. They achieved nothing.
Ciaran Jenkins: Ultimate phrase from David TC Davies. Are you pleased with your document, and has it been marketing campaign for Rishi Sunak?
David TC Davies: Completely. We’ve obtained inflation working at 2%. We’ve obtained unemployment working at 3%. We’ve obtained the joint quickest progress in the entire of the G7 together with Canada. The financial document is superb. That is what’s going to change if there’s a Labour authorities, as a result of they’ve £8.5 billion of utterly unfunded spending commitments, which goes to lead to further taxes or further borrowing.
