Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 8 October 2024.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan
Labour
2:12,
8 October 2024
What is it with you Tories? Honestly—you’re just making things up that we say. There's never—. The Cabinet Secretary for finance was clear at the Finance Committee he does not intend to increase the Welsh rate of income tax, and I think it's really important to recognise that it's not his decision alone what happens. There's a Senedd. There's a whole system to go through. It may be you want to put up the taxes, but we won't be voting for that. We won't be voting for that. And you have been doing that. You put them up quite a lot under your leadership—a 70-year high, I understand, in terms of taxes. But we as a Government will not be suggesting we put up taxes. So, go and tell your little friends—[Interruption.]—go and tell your little friends in The Telegraph that what they write is nonsense.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
