With less than two weeks before Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland take to the polls, the question of Welsh funding has been a point of contention and raised during a session of Minister’s Questions. Over the past weeks and months the opposition has taken aim at the Conservative Party for a budget in which Wales is said to be subsidising England. The Welsh Government has requested additional funding after the Welsh Block Grant Motion was read before the Senedd and more recently a Welsh Funding Motion has been submitted to the House of Commons.

In a session of Minister's Questions, in which Conservative economic policy was described as ‘wishy washy centrist nonsense’ by the Member of Parliament for Somerset and Bristol, the matter of Welsh funding was raised repeatedly. Labour Member of Parliament /u/Maroiogog took issue with the Welsh Secretary offering conditional or ‘specific grants’ to the Welsh Government. An offer described as disrespectful to 'the very principle of Welsh devolution' by the Libertarian Party Cymru. The Shadow Chancellor, /u/Archism_ and /u/SoSaturnistic also asked the Chief Secretary whether the government will seek to adjust Welsh funding.

Responding to a question posed by Member of Parliament for Surrey /u/cthulhuiscool2, the Chief Secretary claimed the Conservative Party ‘raised the block grant in the latest budget’ and accused ‘certain individuals’ of ‘a crude political game’. In reply Mr iscool2 accused the Chancellor in turn of a ‘miserable falsehood’ arguing the previous budget had ‘not [raised] Welsh funding by a penny’.

The Block Grant for Wales, the largest single source of revenue for the Welsh Government, was unchanged between the Conservative-Liberal Democrat budget and that before it – the Conservative-Libertarian budget published in January. A figure of £17.01 billion.

The Chief Secretary also repeatedly claimed ‘there were no complaints’ before the Conservative-Liberal Democrat budget was passed, despite Member of Parliament for West Yorkshire /u/LeChevalierMal-Fait accusing the Chancellor of ‘short-changing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by many billions of pounds’ in March. /u/Archism_ and /u/SoSaturnistic made similar criticisms of the budget.

When approached for comment a Conservative spokesperson claimed the January budget had not been ‘implemented’ and the Chief Secretary was correct ‘to observe that funding for Wales had been increased’, citing the budget of July 2019.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government ceased to exist in April after a Vote of No Confidence in which the Home Secretary was accused of misleading parliament.