Welsh Conservatives today condemned as ‘blatant taxpayer funded propaganda’ £85,000-worth of newspaper ads promoting an Assembly Government business support scheme.
Adverts for the Flexible Support for Businesses launch – including a photo of Deputy First Minister and Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones – were placed in papers across Wales just days before Plaid’s spring conference.
Opposition leader Nick Bourne AM today demanded an explanation into the expenditure and the timing of their publication last month.
Responses to a series of questions from Mr Bourne reveal that ads were placed in 20 newspapers at a total cost of £85,168.03. This included what the Deputy First Minister calls “creative fees” for the campaign, as well as production and advertising costs.
Last month Welsh Conservatives accused the Assembly Government of a “significant under-spend” in support for businesses during the recession.
Information obtained by the party revealed that less than a quarter of funding from the Labour-Plaid administration’s business support programme budget was spent in the first half of the financial year and with the economy still in recession.
Commenting on the newspaper ad campaign Nick Bourne AM said:
“Ieuan Wyn Jones is desperately trying to establish credentials as the man to support businesses in Wales.
“Yet he is responsible, in part, for the fact businesses are closing across Wales, the unemployment rate is higher than any other UK nation, we have high levels of worklessness, and we are struggling to attract more investment.
“We already know that ministers were failing to support businesses in Wales during the recession given the significant under-spend during the first half of the financial year.
“While I accept the Assembly Government needs to inform businesses about potential government support, the scale and nature of this particular approach is concerning.
“Either the timing of these ads so close to the Plaid conference was a complete coincidence or a deliberate decision.
“I want to be satisfied it is the former.”
