Commenting on Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones’ claim on the Andrew Marr programme this morning that Welsh economic figures ‘aren’t that bad’, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan MP said:
“Coming just days after Peter Hain claimed Wales is ‘wealthier than Rwanda’ I am astonished by the First Minister’s complacency.
“All the main economic data points to the fact Wales is performing worse than other parts of the United Kingdom.
“We have the highest unemployment rate of any UK nation, one in four of the working population is economically inactive, thousands of young people are not in education, employment or training, Welsh workers are among the lowest paid, and Wales is the poorest part of the United Kingdom.
“For the last decade Carwyn Jones has been part of a government which has failed to encourage growth in the private sector he now claims is too small. In that time our manufacturing base has eroded while the public sector has swelled.
“This is the reality of Labour’s economic policy. To claim things ‘aren’t that bad’ demonstrates an abject failure to face facts.”
