Plaid Cymru taking a lot for granted in first big Senedd budget test, says Labour MS

A Labour politician has suggested the Plaid Cymru Welsh government is potentially taking opposition support for its mid-year spending plans "for granted".

Plaid is in a minority in the Senedd, and faces its first big test in getting help to get its supplementary budget passed.

But on Tuesday party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth suggested he would not need to conduct the kind of talks seen during full blown annual budget plans.

Huw Thomas, of Caerdydd Penarth, said those comments had raised "a few eyebrows".

In a change in tone on Wednesday morning, Plaid's Finance Minister Elin Jones acknowledged that the party would need talks with the opposition.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the budget currently is set to cut the health and social care budget in real terms.

Elin Jones announced £294m in new spending on Tuesday, with £40m to go on repairs to schools, £55m on childcare, and £100m for waiting times.

The Welsh government has extra money as a consequence of money spent by the UK government, used to pay off the debts of English councils built up through supporting young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Labour sources criticised Plaid on Tuesday after Ap Iorwerth told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: "It's not like a budget round where you have discussions and talks with other parties in the same way."

Sources described the comments as "casual" and indicated that they were unlikely to have gone down well with the interim Labour leader, Ken Skates.

Plaid's options are limited. The party has long ruled out working with Reform in the Senedd, while the Tories' Sam Rowlands said on Wednesday that it was "difficult for us at this stage" for the Conservatives to aid them.

That would leave Labour - although there have been discussions it is not thought they have got to the detail yet of what the party may try to put into any deal.

On Wednesday morning, Huw Thomas told BBC Radio Wales: "I think a few eyebrows were raised by that interview yesterday.

"There have been a few, you know, things that have happened that have said to me Plaid are taking an awful lot for granted with this budget."

The finance spokesman criticised the governing party for announcing its budget plans to the media rather than tabling them in the Senedd.

Thomas said a lot of attention had focused on the fact the money being spent came from the UK government providing extra cash in England to pay off the cost of special educational needs, known as additional learning needs (ALN) in Wales.

"Every Welsh council, all the teaching unions are calling for this money to come to schools. And there's no penny of that money coming for that purpose."

He added: "I'm not going to get into the details of negotiation here, but I certainly expect there to be a negotiation."

Sam Rowlands, Conservative finance spokesman, said schools in Wales are "carrying tens of millions of pounds of deficit budgets", a lot of which had come about from pressures from ALN.

"What needs to happen is that deficit in schools needs to be acknowledged, needs to be addressed, and schools need to be supported," he said.

But he added that while he was "open" to hear what Elin Jones has to say, he added: "It's very difficult for us at this stage to be able to say that we can, because we didn't support the substantive part of the budget at the start of this year."

Jones told the same programme that she accepted "that we need support to pass any budget".

"Yes, and we've already had discussions on the budgets. I was open with the other spokespeople on where the priorities of Plaid Cymru are going to be."

She said: "Supplementary budgets are usually done in a technical, non-political way. I do accept that this budget is different - it is the first budget ever by a Plaid Cymru government.

"I've sought to try and place this budget in a place where it respects the budget that was voted for by Labour, brought forward by Labour in the last government."

She said the Welsh government recognised it needed to work with councils on ALN, but said there was "not a quick fix" and said there needed to be a more "sustainable model".

Reform's Jason O'Connell said his party was "always open to negotiating with the government to get things through and we've been very clear leading into the Senedd term".

He accused Plaid Cymru ministers of taking "money away from children with additional learning needs".

The independent think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluded that the overall health and social care budget is set to fall by 0.7% in real terms in this financial year compared to the last.

Its head of devolved finance, David Phillips, told BBC Wales' Walescast that the Welsh government's second supplementary budget - usually published after Christmas - might be a "much tougher affair with nearly all of the money going to the NHS to stop it keeling over".

He also said that even if the £247m left unallocated in Monday's spending plans was all given to the health service, it would still mean a "substantially slower" increase of 1.5-2% compared to recent years.

Phillips warned that ministers would face a "real test" in setting the 2027-28 annual budget and need to find "substantially more money" to fund priorities such as the flagship expansion of childcare.

Projections suggest that the amount of money coming from Westminster is set to slow down in the coming years, with the next financial year, starting next April, expected to be particularly tight.

Phillips said options could include holding down spending on the NHS, cutting other areas or raising income tax.