‘Remove Lord Kinnock’ call over Circuit letters
THE leader of the Welsh Conservatives has called on Carwyn Jones to consider removing former Labour leader Lord Kinnock from the Welsh Government’s EU advisory group following revelations about the peer’s role in lobbying for the controversial Circuit of Wales project.
Last month we published drafts of letters written by Lord Kinnock to the First Minister and others in support of the scheme, which involves building a £425m racetrack on moorland above Ebbw Vale.
It has been suggested that the project could create up to 6,000 jobs, although that figure has been disputed by some experts.
It is accepted that the scheme could not go ahead without substantial financial assistance in the form of grants, loans and guarantees from public funds, largely the Welsh Government.
It has been confirmed that Lord Kinnock wrote letters seeking financial support for the project on House of Lords notepaper. Former Blaenau Gwent Labour council leader Hedley McCarthy criticised Lord Kinnock for writing a letter to him on House of Lords notepaper in which the peer asked him to lend £50m of the council’s money to the circuit of Wales – a request that was turned down because the council could not afford to do so.
Now, in a written response to questions from Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, the First Minister has confirmed that letters sent to him on the subject by Lord Kinnock were also written on House of Lords notepaper. Mr Jones has published his response to Lord Kinnock, but has refused to publish the peer’s letters to him.
We have previously published drafts of letters written by Michael Carrick, the businessman behind the Circuit of Wales, for Lord Kinnock to be sent to Mr Jones and Mr McCarthy.
Andrew RT Davies said: “The First Minister’s refusal to make public his correspondence with Lord Kinnock is, while frustrating, entirely unsurprising and in keeping with his opaque style of governance.
“Here is a case where, in a clear conflict of interest, a Labour peer has rather cynically used his position to attempt to influence elected officials to commit millions of pounds of public money to a company which routinely courts controversy.
“In his energetic lobbying on Michael Carrick’s behalf, Lord Kinnock’s judgment appears to be severely lacking and the First Minister should consider carefully whether he should still sit on the Welsh Government’s EU advisory group.
“I can only surmise that the content of this correspondence is somehow damaging to the Labour administration.
“To put to bed any negative speculation, I urge Carwyn Jones not to go back on his word and to publish these letters in a manner which befits a transparent democracy.”
The Welsh Government told us that in line with a previous commitment, it was happy to release the First Minister’s response to Lord Kinnock’s letter, but was not prepared to release Lord Kinnock’s letter itself.
We have seen a draft of Lord Kinnock’s first letter to Carwyn Jones, sent in 2014, in which he described the Circuit of Wales as part of a development programme which had secured strong support from industry, investors and development partners and had been profiled by UK Government as “one of the top investment opportunities in the UK today”.
Lord Kinnock asked to meet Mr Jones and the then Economy Minister Edwina Hart to discuss the possibility of Welsh Government support for attracting Formula 1 to Wales and the establishment of a Welsh Advanced Manufacturing Investment Fund. Such a meeting did not take place.
In a letter to Lord Kinnock written in November 2015, Mr Jones pointed out that it was “disappointing” that further public support was being sought beyond an already offered grant of £18m. He added: “However, given the potential impact that this project could have on the local economy and Valley communities we are, in principle, prepared to consider the suggestion of a Welsh Government head lease to underwrite the funding proposal from Aviva Investors. Any support of this kind that creates a potential long term financial risk can only be undertaken on wholly commercial terms and on completion of robust due diligence, value for money analysis and budgetary impact assessment.”
A spokesman for the First Minister said: “There is nothing in the letter that we haven’t said publicly. Our position on the Circuit of Wales development is well known.” The spokesman did not wish to comment further.
Lord Kinnock, who has previously confirmed that he wrote to Mr Jones and others on behalf of the Circuit of Wales, did not reply to a message in which we asked him to respond to Mr Davies’ comments.