Excitement breaks out during Welsh Questions

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns answers questions from MPs watched by the prime minister.

Excitement is never far away during Welsh Questions in the House of Commons.

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns told MPs there's "a great deal of excitement" in South Wales about "cross-border growth corridors" in the government's industrial strategy.

As if that were not enough, he also confessed to being "excited" about the opportunities for 5G test beds in Cardiff, another aspect of that industrial strategy.

Islwyn Labour MP Chris Evans had warned that most businesses across Wales had "little or no connectivity". Mr Cairns suggested the Welsh Government should look at its planning rules to allow masts to be built as high as 25 metres (as in England) rather than the 15 metre current Welsh limit.

It's nine months since the UK government pulled the plug on plans to electrify the railway between Cardiff and Swansea but the issue is raised with the regularity of a Japanese bullet train.

Alun Cairns accused opposition MPs of "political grandstanding" over the issue and said he would take no lessons from a party that left Wales in the same league as Moldova and Albania without a single track of electrified railway lines.

His Labour shadow Christina Rees said Transport Secretary Chris Grayling acted against advice in cancelling the project. Mr Cairns said there were "no practical benefits" to passengers from electrification on that route.

Plaid Cymru's Ben Lake suggested any savings from the cancellation - between £430 and £700m - should be spent on the Welsh rail network.

'Lagoon'

One day after a minister told the House of Lords the government "wouldn't be rushed" over the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon it featured once again at question time in the Commons.

"We would like it to go forward," said Alun Cairns, "but clearly it must be value for money. It's right that we take time to consider the matter. The data has been shared with the Welsh Government. It demonstrates the partnership approach we're determined to take, none of us should want this to go ahead if it's not good value for money for the taxpayer."

MPs on the Welsh affairs and business, energy and industrial strategy committees will take evidence from the scheme's promoters on May 9.

Mr Cairns found more warm words about the Labour-run Welsh Government after last week's deal on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, a result apparently of the "close intergovernmental working and close co-operation" between the two governments. Ministers in Cardiff may or may not have enjoyed the sight of former Welsh Secretary David Jones praising the deal and asking him to extend thanks to the Welsh Government.

SNP MP Patrick Grady said that the Conservatives were isolated in the Scottish Parliament amid a cross-party consensus that the bill was not fit for purpose.

Back to trains, and Ludlow Tory Philip Dunne wanted to know how he could hold the Welsh Government to account for the rail service between Cardiff and Manchester (stopping at Church Stretton, Craven Arms and Ludlow en route). Stuart Andrew told him English MPs (and passengers) could raise issues with the UK government's transport secretary who could then raise them directly with his Welsh counterpart.