大象传媒

A bill which proposes devolving several tax and borrowing powers to the Welsh Assembly has cleared the House of Commons.

MPs completed report-stage scrutiny of the Wales Bill before agreeing to give it a third reading, on 24 June 2014. It now goes to the Lords for further scrutiny.

The bill, which is one of six to be carried over from the previous parliamentary session, also paves the way for a referendum on the devolution on income tax.

Plaid Cymru proposed a series of amendments seeking to transfer powers from Westminster to Wales - although a vote saw the move defeated by MPs by 278 to 8.

The party's economic spokesman, Jonathan Edwards, argued that the current proposals "effectively hand cuff" the Welsh government, and urged a rethink.

"You can have tax powers which can't be used due to the 'lockstep', you can have borrowing powers as long as you spend them on our preferred projects," he commented.

The Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP called for the Welsh government to be able to issue financial guarantees for infrastructure projects to help drive economic growth in Wales, and to set its own capital expenditure priorities.

However, government spokesman Stephen Crabb insisted that ministers in Wales already had "complete flexibility" to decide how to use their borrowing powers.

Mr Edwards intervened to say his understanding was that the Treasury would have the final say on any project, but Mr Crabb stressed that this was not the case.

Later in the debate, Labour sought to block plans to undo a ban on dual candidacies in Welsh elections, which was introduced in 2006.

Shadow Wales Office minister Nia Griffith surmised that the move had come about because the Conservatives do not have enough qualified people to run for both constituency seats and on party lists; she suggested Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats also faced a candidate shortage.

Defending the government's plans, Wales Office Secretary David Jones noted that Wales "is the only country in the world where dual candidacy is banned under this type of election", and accused Labour of pursuing a partisan agenda.