Sioned Williams MS writes about how the spending review shows that Labour is not serious about tackling poverty
This article was published in the South Wales Evening Post on Thursday 19 June 2025.
The UK Labour Government’s 2025 Spending Review
“Better than we had from the Tories” is a very low bar and is certainly not one any of us should settle for, even if it were true.
Yet this is the sentiment we heard in the Senedd from Welsh Labour time and time again when trying to defend the amount of money Wales was given by the Chancellor in last week’s Spending Review. The plans Rachel Reeves set out for public spending was a chance for the Labour UK Government to bring some fairness back into a system that is keeping Wales poorer and sicker than other parts of the UK.
In the same week as the spending review was announced, a key report into poverty was published, which found that over a fifth of Wales’ population and over a third of our children are in poverty.
The report showed clearly that, over the past decades, Wales has failed to bring down its unacceptably high levels of poverty.
Poverty is a result of political decisions, and so if this UK Labour Government was serious about pulling people in Wales out of poverty – poverty which results in increased spending on the NHS and even shorter lives, then the spending review was the time to show it.
Instead, Keir Starmer’s government refused - yet again - to scrap the cruel two-child limit, and has ploughed on with their devastating cuts to welfare.
Where once Labour stood for the working class, and cared about building a strong safety net, they’re now pulling it apart even more, with decisions that will knowingly push thousands, including children and disabled people, into deeper poverty.
In response, I heard many Welsh Labour politicians speak about hope and that the UK Government’s spending plans was a good thing for Wales.
But for the 700,000 individuals who live in poverty in Wales, including 200,000 children and 100,000 pensioners, there is a vacuum of hope.
This vacuum has been created by Labour’s broken promises of change. In this vacuum, the far right has been feeding on the disappointment and despair of people who understandably feel forgotten by those who used to be their champions.
What people need are plans that will actually change their lives for the better. In order to ensure support is there for people when they need it, the unfair way Wales gets funded by Westminster must change – a clear example is the Oxford-Cambridge rail line which, because of a decision taken by the UK Labour Government, will deny Wales our share of the billions of pounds being spent on it.
It’s time to deliver the fair funding Welsh communities like those in this area desperately need. Plaid Cymru has already published plans to ensure the NHS works better, our economy plan ‘Making Wales Work’ and we have also pledged to introduce ‘Cynnal’, a direct child payment to families like the one that has been so successful in Scotland at reducing child poverty levels.
We’re serious about building a fairer, more confident, more ambitious Wales and we know that the “national renewal” the Chancellor said her decisions are aimed at achieving doesn't start with record child poverty levels.