Plaid Cymru is set to force the Labour Welsh Government to vote on full consequential funding of HS2 from their London counterparts.

On Wednesday, March 12, the Senedd will debate and vote on a Plaid Cymru motion calling on the Labour Government to support the redesignation of HS2 as an England-only project, and to write to the UK Government to demand the full consequential funding from the HS2 project.

Peredur Owen Griffiths MS, who will be leading the debate said that Welsh railways have been ‘deprived of funding for decades’, blaming Labour and Conservative Governments for this, he claims that Welsh railways will never reach their full potential without this funding.

The MS is critical of the Labour UK Government, and references a 2020 report from the Welsh Government which states that they face ‘a shortfall of between £2.4 billion and £5.1 billion in rail enhancement funding’ over the period between 2019 and 2029.

Mr Owen Griffiths said that his party’s intentions are to demand that Labour ‘make a stand’, which he says they have failed to so far, since the Labour UK Government took power.

Plaid Cymru’s Transport spokesperson in the Senedd, Peredur Owen Griffiths, said: “Wales has been deprived of funding from Westminster for decades, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in our railways.

“Our railways have the potential to be so much more than the dated-infrastructure and delayed-services that we currently see. But without the billions of pounds we are denied from both Labour and Tory UK Governments, our railways will never realise their potential.

“When Labour came into power in Westminster, we were promised change, they called with us for our fair share of rail funding and for the £4BN from HS2. It’s clear now that was nothing more than a campaign slogan. We have no HS2 cash, and on top of that, our railways will still be underfunded to the tune of up to £5BN between 2019 and 2029.

“Plaid Cymru are bringing this motion to the Senedd to demand that Labour in Wales make a stand. To stand up for Wales, to stand up for fair funding, to stand up to their bosses in London, all of which they have failed to do over the last seven months.

“Only Plaid Cymru stands up for our fair share of HS2 funding, for fair funding, and for Wales.”