FIRST Minister’s Questions was dominated today by Senedd reform, the billions of pounds owed to Wales from English spending on rail, and child poverty.

Independent Senedd member Rhys ab Owen wanted Senedd reform to include automatic voter registration.

First Minister Mark Drakeford agreed and said it was being looked at but “will have to be trialled to begin with.”

Welsh Conservative James Evans wanted to scrap the proposed closed-party list system that Senedd reform would bring — meaning votes are cast for parties rather than individual candidates — claiming it would make Senedd members less accountable to the public.

The First Minister disagreed and argued that Mr Evans’s fellow Conservative members were already elected on a closed-party list system.

Plaid Cymru’s Cefin Campbell raised the UK government’s high speed rail project (HS2) and said: “It’s clear we won't receive a penny of the billions that we are owed.”

Mr Drakeford said he despaired at the antics of the British government and said the reports that HS2 is to be cancelled from Birmingham to Manchester will explode the fiction that it somehow benefits Wales. 

“At that point, we need to have the Barnett consequential of the money that has been spent,” the First Minister said, referring to public expenditure allocation in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which is designed to reflect changing spending levels allocated to public services in England.

Plaid Cymru party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said the children’s commissioner for Wales wanted the Welsh government to be clearer and braver in its approach to child poverty.

Mr Drakeford said: “In the first decade of devolution, child poverty in Wales fell by a quarter.

“I am as passionate about that today as I ever have been, and when we have that next UK Labour government, we will be able to make a real difference.”