Mark Drakeford has defended UK Labour leader Keir Starmer's refusal to commit to giving Wales its fair share of HS2 funding.
A WalesOnline investigation demonstrated how Wales was being shortchanged by £5bn over high speed rail as it has been defined by the Tories as an "England and Wales" project despite not a single metre of track actually being in Wales. Both Welsh Labour and the Welsh Tories have called for the project to be reclassified. However speaking to WalesOnline at the Welsh Labour conference in the spring Mr Starmer refused to commit to the funding.
Speaking in First Minister's Questions First Minister Mark Drakeford was being challenged of the rail service in Wales. He was asked by new Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth: "Does the First Minister think that the current rail service offered by Transport for Wales is acceptable?"
Read more: Keir Starmer refuses to commit to Wales getting share of HS2 funding
To this Mr Drakeford said: "No I don't... the challenges facing Transport for Wales mean that the service that has been provided in some parts of Wales has not been of a standard that passengers are entitled to expect."
Mr Iorwerth then asked about the decision by Mr Starmer to not guarantee Wales gets its fair share of funding. He asked: "Will the First Minister use his direct line to Keir Starmer to ask why, when it comes to this basic economic fairness, he chooses to side with the Tory Government, and not the people of Wales?"
To this Mark Drakeford said: "I think it is a significant misrepresentation to conflate the positions of a Prime Minister in office, making decisions today to deny Wales the funding that Wales ought to have through the Barnett formula as a result of HS2 investment, and a government that hasn't even been elected yet.
"Sir Keir Starmer will be weighing up the options that an incoming Labour government will have in front of it when it inherits the economic catastrophe that has been the record of the Conservative Government. He's not going to be offering a long shopping list of all the things that he will or will not do on the day that he comes into office, and nobody should mistake that for a positive decision not to do something.
"All he is saying is that, at this point, with a year to go to an election, he will be having to, in a responsible way, make decisions in the context in which he will find himself. The view of the Welsh Labour Government and the view of the Senedd has been very plain, and it's not just our view, as we know, it's the view of many independent commentators far beyond this Chamber: HS2 is not a scheme that benefits Wales. There ought to have been a Barnett consequential, in the way there has been for Scotland. Keir Starmer is in no doubt at all about our position on that issue, and I will make sure that we continue to articulate it to him."
