Welsh people should be on the money, insists Plaid Cymru MP

Wales should be allowed to issue its own banknotes with famous Welsh people on while the name of the Bank of England should be changed to avoid causing offence to the other Home Nations, a Plaid Cymru MP has suggested.

One of the aims of the Bank of England and Financial Services Bill is to provide flexibility to Scotland and Northern Ireland on who can issue sterling bank notes in those countries.

Wales remains the only nation in the UK that is not allowed to produce its own distinct bank notes.

Jonathan Edwards, the Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, has urged the Government to change that.

At the moment the Lloyds Banking Group holds the rights for the Bank of Wales brand and Mr Edwards wants them to be given the right to issue Welsh notes.

"I believe such an outcome would come as a much welcome boost to Welsh national character, the recognition as an equal nation and as an economic entity," he said.

Mr Edwards said that other countries in the UK are able to celebrate and commemorate historic landmarks and prominent people on their bank notes so Wales should be allowed to do the same.

He suggested that ex-prime minister David Lloyd George and Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS, could be possibilities for Wales.

He said the likes of Charles Darwin and William Shakespeare who appear on notes currently circulating in Wales have no link to the country.

He said: "Many pounds of many Welsh people over many years have contributed to the UK through an industrial revolution to bank bailouts.

"I deem it entirely appropriate that Wales's contribution and standing within the sterling zone is recognised and would right what seems to me to be a clear injustice."

Meanwhile, Mr Edwards also suggested the name of the Bank of England should be changed to the Sterling Central Bank.