I spoke out today to criticise the UK Labour Government for voting down my amendment to devolve the Crown Estate to Wales during the Committee Stage of the Crown Estate Bill.

Despite widespread public and political support here in Wales, Labour MPs chose to keep control of our seabed and its revenues at Westminster - directly contradicting the stance of the Welsh Labour Government.

The Crown Estate owns the seabed out to 12 nautical miles and is a £16 billion portfolio belonging to the monarch, with all revenue currently going to the UK Treasury. In 2016 Scotland secured devolution of its Crown Estate, reinvesting those revenues in local communities.

During the debate, Treasury Minister James Murray insisted that Westminster control brings “greater benefit for the people of Wales and the wider United Kingdom.” That view sits uneasily alongside comments from our First Minister, Eluned Morgan, who has called the current arrangement “unfair” and says she is “fighting very hard” for more control.

I also criticised the Welsh Labour Government for failing to submit written evidence to the Committee in support of devolution - despite publicly claiming to back it. The Liberal Democrat MP Pippa Hayling voted in favour of my amendment; all nine Labour committee members voted it down, and the Conservatives abstained.

“Yesterday's vote was an opportunity for the Labour UK Government to show it was listening to the concerns of people in Wales about underinvestment and a lack of control of our resources. Instead, they chose to keep control of the Crown Estate in Westminster, depriving our communities of economic opportunities. Scotland has the powers—why not Wales?”

“Once again, we see Labour saying one thing in Wales and doing another in Westminster. Just recently, the First Minister said she was ‘fighting very hard’ for the devolution of the Crown Estate. Yet, when given the opportunity to submit evidence to the Committee to support their position, the Labour Welsh Government failed to do so.”

“This is not the end of the road. When the Bill returns to the House of Commons for its next stage, we will give all MPs the opportunity to vote on Plaid Cymru's proposal to put control of the Crown Estate in the hands of the people of Wales. I will be urging Labour MPs from Wales to consider the needs of their communities, not their party.”

As your Member of Parliament for Ynys Môn, I’ll continue to press for devolution of the Crown Estate so that every pound generated can be reinvested directly in our communities.