The Plaid Cymru leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council has accused Labour of failing to stand up for Wales over its funding from the UK Government.
Allan Pritchard said the Labour Party had years in power to address the issue but did nothing. Caerphilly’s Labour MP Wayne David has hit back at the claims.
Cllr Pritchard said: “At the Assembly elections in May Labour promised to stand up for Wales against the nasty Tories in Westminster. Yet, now we see the First Minister on his knees at the table of the rich man, seeking crumbs from the Con-Lib Dem table in London.
“Peter Hain MP and Wayne David MP stated that they would fight to defend Wales while in opposition. But where were they when they had their large majority during their years of government? They knew that Wales was being short changed compared to Scotland and Northern Ireland?
“Labour had years to address this issue but their Welsh MPs chose to sit on their hands and do nothing other than to ask for reports.
“It has been clearly demonstrated that the Barnett formula was totally unfair to the people of Wales and should be replaced with a needs based allocation. Even when Labour had clear evidence, they simply continued to sit on their hands and play politics, failing to introduce a fairer system of funding. Now, it is those nasties in government who are sitting on the reports and ignoring the needs of Wales.
““Had Labour acted when in power to address fair funding, we would have had at least half a loaf and not the crumbs that we are still left with.”
Wayne David, Labour’s Caerphilly MP, defended Labour’s record.
He said: “When in Government, Labour substantially increased the funding for Wales through the block grant. This is in contrast to the situation now with the Tory-led Government making drastic cuts.
“It shows what a ‘warped’ attitude the Nationalists have when they prefer to criticise Labour rather than attack the real enemies of Wales – the Tories.
“On the issue of the Barnett formula, the Nationalists know full well that Labour had given a commitment to modify the formula to provide Wales with extra resources. This was on the basis of the Holtham Report which had been commissioned by the then Labour/Plaid Cymru Assembly Government.”