Half-hearted Lobbying Of Westminster Is Letting Wales Down - German

12.00.00am GMT Tue 1st Mar 2005

Labour Assembly Ministers are failing to lobby their Westminster counterparts properly on issues of importance to Wales, Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Leader Mike German revealed today.

Mr German challenged Minister Sue Essex at question time today to justify why an Assembly resolution to make a strong case to Westminster to introduce Free Personal Care only resulted in a single line in a letter drawing the vote to the attention of then Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy. The letter was released to the Welsh Liberal Democrats under the Freedom of Information regulations.

Mr German said: "Two years ago Dr Gibbons produced a substantial report which supported the idea of free personal care and urged the Assembly Government to make a strong case at Westminster. Now, we discover that the "strong case" amounted to a single letter from Jane Hutt to Paul Murphy. That is certainly not what I call making "strong representation" to Westminster?"

He went on to highlight the similarity with St David's Day - another issue where Labour Ministers have failed to turn an Assembly vote in to meaningful actions.

"I can't accept that when this Assembly takes a decision that the way in which this is dealt with is a sentence in a single letter. We wanted action. We just didn't get it. How can we trust you when you are not prepared to do more?" added Mr German.