Andy Burnham: Wales 'short-changed' by spending formula

Andy Burnham says the formula that decides changes in the Welsh government budget gives "a rough deal to Wales"

Andy Burnham, frontrunner for the Labour leadership, has been campaigning in Wales today.

As is traditional every time senior politicians cross Offa's Dyke, he was asked about the [Barnett] formula that decides changes in the Welsh government's budget.

He told my colleague Carl Roberts: "I think it gives a rough deal to Wales if I'm honest. I was chief secretary to the treasury and I remember looking in detail at the BF and I do think Wales gets short-changed by it.

"So I think it needs to be looked at and it's one of the reasons I've asked Carwyn Jones to chair a UK constitutional convention so that we can look not just at the balance of powers between the UK centrally and Wales but also financial questions and how we get fairness across the UK in terms of the distribution of finance. So all of these questions are on the table and rightly so because I don't think Wales has had a fair deal out of the current financial settlement."

That was a point made in a parliamentary question from the former cabinet minister Paul Murphy back in 2007 (when public spending was rising overall and the gap between spending per head in Wales and England narrowing).

Mr Paul Murphy: "To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to review the Barnett formula for allocating the block grant for Wales."

Andy Burnham: "The Government have no plans to review the Barnett formula."

Ah well, eight years is a long time in politics. Mr Burnham is also backing calls for Welsh Labour to have a seat on the UK party's NEC. As Lee Waters pointed out three years ago, this was first promised back in 1999 by Alun Michael and later supported by Ed Miliband but has yet to happen.