On the first full day of general election campaigning, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attacked the Welsh government over speed limits and waiting times. Speaking at a brewery in Barry, Sunak accused Labour of pursuing a “war on motorists” and said Welsh patients were being let down by the state of the Welsh NHS. Welsh Labour First Minister Vaughan Gething had earlier said that ensuring Labour governments are at either end of the M4 “can transform Wales and transform Britain”.
Sunak was joined at the brewery by Welsh Secretary David TC Davies and Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns. Mr Sunak accused the Welsh government of pursuing a “war on motorists with top-down blanket 20mph speed limits”. Small businesses owners were facing “thousands of pounds of higher tax bills” as a result of changes to business rates, according to Sunak. The Welsh government objects to the term “blanket” and says it is an incorrect way to describe a default speed limit that applies in most residential areas that were previously 30mph.
During his visit, Mr Sunak asked whether people were looking forward to a football tournament, but was mocked by a senior Labour MP after it was pointed out that Wales had not qualified for the tournament. Welsh Labour Shadow Secretary Jo Stevens branded it as “another own goal for Rishi.” She also said it was “a race between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer,” while not taking interest in donations controversies that dominated Gething’s first few weeks as the Prime Minister.
The election is the first since a major boundary review, which will cut the number of Members of Parliament in Wales from 40 to 32. Welsh Labour won 22 seats in the last election and are hoping to expand their dominance in Wales, while the Conservatives are defending the ground they won in 2019. Plaid Cymru is currently the third-largest Welsh group of MPs in Westminster, with four seats. Its leader leader spent Thursday afternoon visiting what the party called its “key battleground seats” of Carmarthen, Ceredigion Preseli, Dwyfor Meirionydd and Ynys Môn
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