No confidence bid flops at Assembly
ABID by Plaid Cymru to humiliate Alun Cairns in the National Assembly with a vote of no confidence has flopped after Labour AMs voted against it.
The vote would only have been symbolic as Mr Cairns is not a member of the Assembly and AMs have no power over UK Government roles.
Only nine AMs backed the no confidence motion with 40 against and no abstentions.
Plaid said Labour had let the Vale of Glamorgan MP off the hook, “despite his serious failures to do what’s best for Wales”.
Instead, a Welsh Government amendment that was heavily critical of Mr Cairns and regretted the lack of investment was passed.
Plaid Cymru had called the vote saying it had no faith in either Alun Cairns or the post of Secretary of State for Wales as a whole.
Plaid AM Simon Thomas said his party’s motion came after the refusal to back the tidal lagoon and an earlier decision by Theresa May not to progress with electrifying the railway between Cardiff and Swansea. In the end, there were three motions put to the vote in Cardiff Bay.
As well as Plaid Cymru’s, Labour’s successful amendment said AMs “regretted” the lack of investment in both the lagoon and electrification and called for “deeper and more sustained cooperation between the UK Government and the devolved governments”.
The new interim leader of the Conservative Assembly group Paul Davies put forward a motion saying they believed the role was “vital” and listing the “significant achievements” of Mr Cairns – although some of those were disputed by cabinet secretary Mark Drakeford.
Mr Drakeford told the chamber that one of the achievements listed was for his role in an “historic fiscal framework”. He said despite Mr Drakeford having monthly meetings with then Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke, he only remembered Mr Cairns being present for a photo opportunity, not any of the negotiations.
Mr Thomas said Mr Cairns was elected on a manifesto to “finish the job on electrification and to support the tidal lagoon”.
“Since that 2015 manifesto circumstances have changed, many of them created by the Conservative Government itself, of course, in calling the referendum on leaving the European Union, but neither of those major investments have been made, calling into question not only the good words of the Secretary of State himself but, I think, politics more widely.
“All of us who stand for election on manifestos and I’ve seen some of the response this week from my constituents around this, who now feel that they are not being listened to, that manifesto commitments and promises can be broken willynilly.”
Rhun ap Iorwerth said Mr Cairns was “Westminster’s man in Wales, not Wales’ man in Westminster”.
Mr Drakeford spoke in support of an alternative Government motion. He said he did not believe it was the place of the Assembly to put forward a vote of no confidence against an individual.
“There was very little in what Simon Thomas had to say in opening this debate that I would have dissented from at all,” he said.
“I think it is simply that on this side, we do not believe that it makes best sense for this institution to be drawn into passing motions of no confidence in individuals who are not elected to the National Assembly nor answerable to it.”