Plaid Cymru Aberconwy AM Gareth Jones today accused Conservatives of turning their backs on small and medium sized companies, saying that their cuts plan will undermine their businesses.
Mr Jones said that Tories had courted the small business vote during the election campaign and will now threaten their existence by slashing public spending. He said that with less money from the public sector finding its way into the wider economy through contracts and wages, many small and medium sized businesses would flounder.
In a debate today at the Senedd on the issue of the UK’s deficit Mr Jones called on the Conservatives to set out what assessment they had made of the knock-on effects of their cuts agenda on the Welsh economy.
Speaking after the debate today, Mr Jones said:
“Why won’t the new UK government tell us what assessment they have made of the knock-on effects of their cuts agenda? The natural conclusion to reach is that no assessment has been made – because they simply don’t care what the results of their actions are on our economy and our communities. As we know, Conservatives care nothing for the effects of cuts on the people who lose their jobs and businesses.
“We know that the Conservatives want to slash public spending – that is what they always want to do. But what they don’t want to talk about is the knock-on effects of doing that. If people lose their jobs from the public sector, they will not have money to spend in their local shops and businesses. If the public sector is offering less procurement contracts, the businesses that currently rely on them will close and more jobs will go.
“As well as the £200 million being taken out of the Welsh budget by the new ConDem government they are also cutting direct spending by the Westminster government in Wales. The end result of this could run into billions when you fully consider the peripheral economy that public spending supports. Despite all this, the Conservatives and their new Lib Dem partners continue to plan these cuts before the Welsh economy has recovered sufficiently to cope. It’s reckless and shows clearly that they simply don’t care about our communities in Wales.”
