The Senedd, like Holyrood, has failed its people

There are disturbing parallels between the meltdown of the Labour administration in Wales and the recent chaos of the SNP government in Scotland. Dodgy fundraising issues, votes of no confidence, forced resignations, woke policies, ever-lengthening NHS waiting lists and even scandals over deleted WhatsApps during Covid. What’s going on? Is there something systemically awry with devolution?

The Scottish and Welsh parliaments, established after referendums 25 years ago, were supposed to bring power closer to the people and improve the quality of government. In the recent past, at least, they have succeeded in doing neither. Reckless incompetence in both administrations has further diminished respect for politics and delivered demonstrably inferior government.

Welsh First Minister Vaughan Gething has today resigned after only four months, following a vote of no confidence which he initially tried to dismiss as an ‘opposition gimmick’. He had been accused of impropriety in accepting a £200,000 donation from a company that had earlier received £400,000 from the Development Bank of Wales when Mr Gething was the minister responsible for it. There is no suggestion that the Prif Weinidog broke any law. Gething denies any wrong-doing. But the owner of the company that made the unprecedented donation was revealed to have been convicted of environmental offences. The resignation this morning of four of Gething’s own ministers made his tenure as FM unsustainable.

In Scotland, the long-running police investigation, Operation Branchform, into fundraising irregularities in the SNP is still hanging over the party of government. The former chief executive of the SNP, and husband of Nicola Sturgeon, Peter Murrell, was arrested in April and charged with embezzlement, which he denies. The investigation earlier focussed on a £100,000 campervan which was seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s mother. 

Nicola Sturgeon was also arrested as part of Operation Branchform, but released without charge in June last year. She had already resigned precipitately from her post as first minister following a scandal over the transgender double rapist, Isla Bryson, also known as Adam Graham, being placed on remand in Cornton Vale women’s jail. Ms Sturgeon has since confirmed that the abuse she received during the trans row played a major role in her decision to stand down.  Her flagship Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, had been blocked by the UK government under Section 35 of the Scotland Act. Ms Sturgeon had also been criticised for a decline in Scottish educational performance and for mismanagement of the Scottish NHS, while trying to use the courts to force a repeat referendum on independence. 

Gething, of course, is a unionist, and has not been trying to break up the UK. But as in Scotland, the background to the present troubles has been a failure to deliver on pressing issues like NHS waiting lists in Wales. He had also promoted ill-considered and unpopular legislation like the country-wide imposition of 20mph speed limits, which had to be scrapped after a public outcry. Gething had also taken Wales down the trans route. He promised to make Wales ‘the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe’ and attacked Rishi Sunak’s block on the Scottish gender bill. As in Scotland, evidence that Welsh schools are promoting trans ideology, has alarmed parents. 

But all that aside, the real failure of the devolved administrations over the past two decades has been in the performance of their core responsibilities: health and education. Both Wales and Scotland receive substantially more public spending per head than England, yet the performance of public services has been demonstrably poorer. In Wales, one in five are languishing on NHS waiting lists, while in Scotland one in seven are in medical limbo. Since 2019, Scotland has recorded an 80 per cent increase in patients going private according to the Nuffield Trust. In Wales the number has more than doubled. Scotland has the worst drug deaths in Europe. Wales is not far behind. 

Both Labour in Wales and the SNP in Scotland have delivered derisory national leadership. Humza Yousaf, the first Muslim leader of a western democracy, who took over from Surgeon last year, presided over a catalogue of policy errors, from ferry contracts to recycling schemes. He resigned in April after facing a vote of no confidence following the collapse of the SNP-Green coalition. Gething, the first black leader of a European nation, attempted to carry on even after a no confidence vote in the Senedd. He has now bent to the inevitable, following a ministerial revolt over the donations scandal and his sacking of a minister, Hannah Blythyn, for allegedly leaking evidence that the FM had been deleting WhatsApp messages during Covid. Blythyn denied responsibility for the leak, saying she was ‘deeply shocked’ by the dismissal.

Keir Starmer once suggested that Wales was a ‘blueprint’ for the UK under a Labour government. Not anymore. The Prime Minister would be wise to review his commitment to devolving more powers and more money to Wales and Scotland until there is firm evidence that they’ve got their respective houses in order.