Considered Science Led Step By Step for Wales not smokescreen and diversionary lens from Downing Street’s ‘Partygate’

The First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford made a series of jabs at the Prime Minister Boris Johnson today, Friday (Jan 21) at his press conference.

The First Minister who referred to himself as the Prime Minister of Wales said that the decisions to throw caution to the wind by Downing Street was nothing more than a lens to divert attention away from what is being called ‘Partygate’.

He said: “If anyone believes that their announcements this week about Coronavirus were the result of a careful consideration of the science or because they had a well worked out plan for what they were doing I think that would be a very optimistic view indeed of the state of play in the UK Government.

Everything that is happening in Westminster at the moment is seen entirely through the lens of how can we get something else to be reported other than the dire difficulties the Prime Minister has created for himself and that is what I believe lies behind the announcement we have seen this week.

Mr Drakeford said that the UK Government were looking exclusively through a lens on how to shore up the position of the Prime Minister, not functioning and discharging responsibilities that fall to it. He said that the UK Government are ‘simply not capable’ of doing ordinary business of government in a competent and sensible way as they were overwhelmed by headlines surrounding events at downing street.

The First Minister said that the Prime Minister who was someone who had been sacked from two previous jobs for not telling the truth. He said: “I believe the Times wrote an editorial on the eve of the 2019 election pointing to the many flaws in the Prime Minister’s record. In many ways.”

I think what you see is his history catching up with him.

The First Minister has said previously: “We now need a UK Government capable of discharging its responsibilities rather than one paralysed by the unfolding crises of a deeply dysfunctional Downing Street.”

We asked the First Minister if it were not time to call for a referendum on Independence if he lacked confidence in the relationship and the mechanisms of Westminster and if the the vote was yes would he take Wales back into the EU?

The First Minister said: “These are very profound questions. I absolutely recognise that for that people like me who believes that Wales is better off in the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom is better off having Wales in it then having a government that is so deeply dysfunctional makes that argument harder to make.

“What that does is to confuse the temporary occupation of seats of power by an incompetent group of people for the long term interests that Wales has of having a successful United Kingdom. I said before the Senedd Election that if a party were to win a majority of seats in an election on a manifesto that said there would be a referendum on independence then of course the referendum for independence should be held and the people in Wales are entitled to make their own decision on their own future. I have never believed anything else.”

Asked if he believed that the relationship with Boris Johnson’s government was akin to a divorced partner with a restraining order and cuts to the family budget the First Minister said: “There was a YouGov poll this week that showed that more people in England believe that the approach taken in Wales was to be preferred and that is pretty remarkable given that they don’t hear about us that often and when they do it is because we are being attacked by some right wing politician or press outfit.

The First Minister said that one piece of good news was that the Intergovernmental Review had been published. He concluded by saying: “It does offer us a much better prospect on the conduct of the relations between the four nations of the United kingdom.”