Welsh government loses budget vote as Labour refuses to back spending plans

Plaid Cymru has lost a Senedd vote on extra spending plans after Labour refused to support changes to the budget.

Labour said the Welsh government should withdraw its supplementary budget because of a dispute with teaching unions.

The NAHT and ASCL criticised the government over a pay deal and funding for the education of pupils with additional learning needs (ALN).

Labour finance spokesman Huw Thomas said: "Our view is we cannot support a supplementary budget on that basis."

Plaid Cymru Finance Minister Elin Jones told the BBC she was "flabbergasted" by Labour's position, accusing it of behaving as a "destructive opposition".

Without a majority in the Senedd, Plaid had needed support from opposition Members of the Senedd (MSs) to get the spending plans passed on Tuesday night but failed to secure it, with 49 MSs voting against the budget and 44 backing it.

Before the debate, Thomas said: "The Welsh government need to withdraw it today, negotiate with those unions to get an agreement there and then bring it back to the chamber."

Later, during some at times bad tempered night exchanges in the chamber on Tuesday night, Thomas warned: "As for the suggestion that if the supplementary budget failed there would be no money giving to ALN until a later debate.

"If that's accurate, then it's pernicious, it's vindictive and it's going to lead to widespread industrial action."

Reform's Cai Parry-Jones said his party would not back the budget as it did not meet several of the party's "red lines", including cutting overseas spending.

"We were not elected to wave through government budgets which, in our view, fail to deliver for the people of Wales," he said.

Conservative group leader Darren Millar said it was "bonkers" for the Welsh government to bring the supplementary budget to the Senedd when a deal had not been agreed.

"The political reality is this - the arithmetic in this Senedd means that Welsh government budgets, and Welsh government legislation, cannot be agreed without cross-party agreement.

"You have to secure a majority of the votes cast. That agreement has not been secured and it's bonkers to bring something to the Senedd for a vote without securing it."

Published three weeks ago, the supplementary budget worth £300m includes funding to reduce NHS waiting times and expand childcare.

It was Plaid's first opportunity to review the government's spending plans since winning May's Senedd election and ending 27 years of Labour dominance.

Ministers had set aside a further £247m of day-to-day spending which had not yet been allocated.

Labour had been calling for £100m of that unallocated money to be spent on ALN between now and next April.

On Monday night, First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth wrote to Labour with a "final proposal" to spend an extra £40m on ALN this year and in each of the next two financial years.

But on Tuesday morning it emerged the NAHT Cymru and ASCL Cymru unions were in dispute with the government over a 3.5% pay deal and an "on-going crisis" in ALN funding.

By the afternoon Finance Minister Elin Jones was telling BBC Wales: "This Senedd has not been able to come together to vote for support for progressive policies in the Senedd.

"I regret that. I'm flabbergasted by Labour's change of heart [and] role in all of this."

Asked if Plaid Cymru should have foreseen that the process would not be straightforward, she said: "Politics is never straightforward, I know that, but I know the nature of making deals as well.

"I know how important that is in a Senedd where there is very seldom a majority government.

"I've seen those deals made in the past, I've been part of them from opposition.

Accusing Labour of behaving as a "destructive opposition", she said the party had "a lot to learn in making deals" if it wanted to be part of a "progressive alliance to ensure that good policies can be delivered by a Senedd that does not have a majority government, and where opposition plays a role in ensuring that policies are delivered throughout Wales, and Labour's failed to deliver that deal today".

What Jones calls a progressive alliance would align Plaid Cymru with Labour and, potentially, the two Greens and single Liberal Democrat in Cardiff Bay votes, so ministers would not need the help of Reform UK or the Conservatives.

This vote, the first significant setback for the Plaid Cymru administration since its stunning Welsh parliamentary election win two months ago, took place in the final week of Senedd business before the summer recess.

Additional reporting by Adrian Browne and Mark Palmer