By stewartb

The British Labour Party’s leader in the Holyrood parliament, Anas Sarwar MSP is quoted in a Holyrood magazine article from February 14, 2024 entitled: ‘Labour unveils new ‘blueprint for economic growth’. It was a fairly typical ‘blame the Scottish Government’ piece useful for illustration.

‘Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the SNP-Green government of “failing” businesses and “choking off opportunity and hurting families and companies in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and a cost-of-doing-business crisis”. (my emphasis)

And: ‘The Labour Party argues that the SNP has failed to grow the economy over its 17 years in government ..’

It’s worth recalling that the British Labour Party has governed Wales within a devolved settlement since 1999. So what’s been its track record? This is something that came up in the most recent Senedd session of FMQs.

From the Tory leader of the opposition (January 28 2025): “First Minister, the labour market overview was published by the Office for National Statistics last week. The figures showed that you’re a record-breaking Labour Government, but you’re breaking records for all of the wrong reasons, because the data shows that Wales has the highest level of unemployment in the United Kingdom and the highest level of economic inactivity and the lowest average take-home pay in Great Britain.”

The FM’s response notably didn’t refute the veracity the statistics but rather laid blame: “Well, thanks very much. I’m sure people across Wales and the UK will know the most difficult impact that has been on businesses in recent years is huge increases in inflation, but also increases in interest rates, and all of these things are as a result of the calamitous leadership of the Tory Government in the past.”

And in response to a follow-up question from the Tory leader, still on the poor performance of the Welsh economy, the FM states:

“… part of the reason why we are so challenged is because of Brexit. And it is, I think, important to note that our opportunities and the opportunities for companies in Wales to export have been significantly dented as a result of those higher barriers that we now have to confront. The difficulties to recruit in some of our really specialist areas are as a result of Brexit. And those promises that you made in relation to bringing immigration down, well, they didn’t come to pass either. Promises, promises, promises. And I’m afraid—. We’ve got to respect the fact that people in Wales did vote for Brexit, but they were told untruths. They were told untruths, and that is part of the problem. They were told—. They were made promises that have not been fulfilled.“

Source: https://record.senedd.wales/Plenary/14808?lang=en-GB

All the circumstances the Welsh FM refers to impacted the whole of the UK. All the circumstances the Welsh FM refers to are outwith the control of a government with limited, devolved powers. And whatever has been achieved by successive administrations in Cardiff to mitigate external factors, they clearly have been inadequate – unsurprisingly.

It is remarkable how British Labour Party leaders find ways to excuse their track record in government by reference to external factors when they don’t have the SNP to blame for a nation’s ills.