General election: Sunak attacks Welsh government on Barry visit

The Welsh government runs health, education, councils, transport policy and agriculture, among other matters.

It is made up of Labour Members of the Senedd (MSs) who are not up for election this year.

Mr Sunak, who was joined at the brewery by Welsh Secretary David TC Davies and local Vale of Glamorgan MP Alun Cairns, was shown how the business worked on the second stop of his tour of the UK’s four nations.

The constituency was Labour during the Blair years and is a target seat for the party in the July poll.

Speaking to BBC Wales, Mr Sunak accused the Welsh government of pursuing a “war on motorists with top-down blanket 20mph speed limits”.

Mr Sunak said small businesses owners were facing “thousands of pounds of higher tax bills” as a result of changes to business rates.

“The Welsh NHS, run by the Labour government, is the worst performing in Great Britain – waiting times the longest, emergency times the worst. That’s the reality of Labour in Wales.”

The Welsh government objects to the term blanket – saying it is an incorrect way to describe a default speed limit limit which applies in most residential areas which were previously 30mph.

Mr Sunak said he had a “strong record of investing in Wales”, saying his decision to scrap the second leg of the HS2 high speed rail line, between Birmingham and Manchester, was “going to mean a billion pounds” would be spent electrifying the north Wales main line.

Earlier in the visit Mr Sunak was met with a moment of silence when he asked if the European football championships would be a source of revenue.

“So, you’re looking forward to all the football?,” he asked. Wales did not qualify for the tournament.

One individual answered: “We’re not so invested in it,” to which another responded: “That’s because you guys aren’t in it”.

The prime minister added: “It’ll be a good summer of sport.”

Labour’s shadow Welsh Secretary, Jo Stevens, said on social media platform X it was “another own goal for Rishi”.

Later, one of the business owners pictured sat next to Mr Sunak suggested he would not be supporting his party.

Lee Skeet, owner of Jackson’s oyster bar in Cardiff, said on X, external he was “just asked to be there to talk about hospitality”.