Plaid Cymru’s Hywel Williams MP has today congratulated Ed Miliband on his election as the new leader of the Labour Party.
Mr Williams will now be calling on the Labour party, under Mr Miliband’s lead, to support Plaid’s priorities for Wales, namely: to give full and active support for a Yes vote to give Wales a proper Parliament and the tools it needs to get the job done; to campaign to ensure that Wales gets its fair share of funding; and to reverse Labour’s 13 year legacy in government by joining Plaid in fighting for Welsh communities and not just the needs of south east England.
Commenting, Mr Williams said:
“I’d like to offer my congratulations to Mr Ed Miliband on his appointment as leader of the Labour party following what will have been seen as a rather long and bland competition.
“However Mr Miliband’s appointment will come as an early embarrassment to his party in Wales. Only a few days ago he said that the Barnett Formula, which is the system by which Wales is severely under-funded, has “served us pretty well.” While Labour in Wales now slates the formula and try to gloss over the fact that they failed to address this scandal while they were in government in London, their new leader’s clearly still doesn’t care about the effect the under-funding is having on Wales.
“I would invite Mr Miliband to think again about his obviously misplaced faith in the Barnett formula.
“Labour has a lot of work to do to undo the 13 years of neglect and damage to Wales that they inflicted while they were in government.
“I hope that Mr Miliband now dedicates time and energy to campaigning for an all important Yes vote in the upcoming referendum for Wales, and I hope that he will spell out that commitment as soon as possible.”
