Wales@Westminster weblog

It's Wales@Westminster weblog, BBC Wales' Parliamentary correspondent David Cornock's diary on political life.

Monday 20 June

Powerfully speaking

posted by David | 1323 BST |

Campaigners hoping that the Welsh assembly will eventually acquire the powers of the Scottish parliament can claim support from an unexpected quarter.

Ed Balls, until recently chief economic adviser to the Chancellor Gordon Brown, thinks the assembly should be able to make its own laws - and raise taxes as well.

He told the BBC: "Personally I'm in favour of more powers for the Welsh Assembly. If you are going to have an elected assembly, then it's important that you get the powers for it right... I think that should include tax-raising powers too.

"If you are going to have people elected and accountable it's important they have the power to make decisions for which they can then be accountable and if they get the decisions wrong they can be thrown out.

"But the worst thing is to have a talking shop which is simultaneously elected but doesn't have the power to make any decisions."

His views are significant. Ed Balls may be a newly-elected Labour MP but he is tipped for much greater things - possibly as chancellor in a Brown government.

That is if he doesn't fill in the Plaid Cymru membership application form he may discover in his postbag soon.