Conservative conference: Welsh ministers 'prioritise politics'

Simon Hart will tell the conference the UK government will "deliver on the people's priorities"

Labour ministers in Cardiff Bay put "politics and constitutional reform ahead of creating jobs for local people", the Welsh Secretary has said.

Simon Hart told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester the UK government would "deliver on the people's priorities".

He said it had spent billions supporting Welsh jobs during the pandemic.

It was "committed to giving the Welsh economy a shot in the arm", he said.

The conference began as parts of the UK continued to see problems with fuel supplies at petrol stations and rising gas prices have caused concerns about cost of living pressures this winter.

Speaking earlier to the BBC's Politics Wales programme, Mr Hart accused the first minister of focusing on an "academic obsession" around the constitution, adding that a "massive constitutional debate" was the last thing people worried about how they are "going to get through winter" were concerned about.

With rising gas prices, a shortage of lorry drivers, and concerns about the cost of living, Mr Hart said he hoped the UK was not facing another "winter of discontent".

He said: "There's a sort of optimistic sort of spring in the step of business and job creators and the workforce in Wales."

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• How to find a job in Wales in a pandemic

Later, in a debate on the post-Covid economic recovery on the first day of conference, Mr Hart called for all the governments of the UK to pull together.

"Whether it's supporting upgrades on the Cambrian Line, recruiting hundreds of new police officers or investing in green renewable projects in north Wales, the UK government is committed to giving the Welsh economy a shot in the arm and creating the jobs that people need.

"Now, more than ever, we need to be working together across the United Kingdom to ensure that we bounce back stronger from the pandemic, but the devolved administrations seem to be more focused on conversations about power and constitutional minutiae.

"In the meantime, the UK government will continue to get on with the day job and deliver on the people's priorities," he said.

Mr Hart referred to the billions of pounds the Treasury spent supporting jobs in Wales and the rest of the UK via the furlough scheme, as well as £20m to support a green energy scheme for industry across south Wales, which could create 5,000 new jobs.

Meanwhile, in an article for the Sunday Times, the Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd Andrew RT Davies called for the extra funding coming to Wales as result of additional spending on the NHS in England to be "urgently directed at repairing the damage from coronavirus, but we are still waiting on a government in Cardiff Bay that prefers to pick constitutional battles".

"Ministers in Cardiff Bay shouldn't have time to fight a grievance agenda on political powers and the intricacies of devolution, they need to be fighting tooth and nail for our people's priorities," he wrote.