Wales’ first minister has said Boris Johnson was like the football team’s “absent manager” in the early days of the pandemic.
Mark Drakeford Former prime minister criticized him in testimony to parliament Public inquiry into UK coronavirus outbreak.
He said Johnson “didn’t take the matter seriously” and was deliberately unclear about whether the rules only applied to England.
In evidence on Wednesday, he also described Michael Gove – who had been the liaison between Westminster and the Welsh Government – as “a centre-forward with no team behind him and a manager largely absent”.
Mr Drakeford, who will resign next week, added: “The absent manager is the Prime Minister [Mr Johnson], Because he had never been to these meetings or sat at the table. “
He was speaking in Cardiff, where the Wales module inquiry has been taking place over the past few weeks.
The first minister said it was “unusual” that he had “regularly” written to Johnson in early 2020 asking him to hold a “foreseeable series of meetings” with UK leaders but that he had not accepted the offer .
Mr Johnson previously tell inquiry He opposed the idea because he did not want to give the impression that the country was like a “mini-EU.”
Mr Drakeford also claimed that major events such as the Cheltenham Festival were allowed to go ahead because former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings refused to stop them.
Matt Hancock has previously given evidence to the inquiry. Image: PA
The First Minister said he raised the argument for halting large-scale events at a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee on March 12, just weeks before the first lockdown.
However, he claimed that after asking around for advice, Mr Johnson put the idea to bed by bluntly saying: “Dom said no”.
“I had no idea who Dom was at the time,” Mr Drakeford said.
Hancock ‘got basic things completely wrong’
He also claimed Johnson had “deliberately” ignored requests for clarification on whether the new restrictions would only apply in England.
Mr Drakeford said the then prime minister had assured the devolved governments he would “do the best we can” but then gave a televised address that wrongly gave the impression he was talking about the whole of the UK.
read more:
Drakeford ‘used WhatsApp to seek clarification on rules’
PPE supplies in Welsh care homes ‘inconsistent’, inquiry hears
former health minister Matt Hancock Also criticized.
Mr Drakeford told the inquest that Mr Hancock had mistakenly said during an “unroutine exchange of information” with Mr Gove that health was not a devolved issue.
He also said there was an initial “lack of clarity” about which legislative powers would be used during the pandemic.
Mr Drakeford said: “Even on March 20, there will still be more confusion over the next few days about where the ability to exercise public health powers lies.”
“There was an extraordinary exchange of information between Mr Gove and Mr Hancock on 30 May in which Mr Hancock said ‘I’ve seen the material and lawyers don’t understand where the powers are, It’s a shame because public health is not devolved.”
Mr Drakeford said: “The UK Health Secretary is therefore simply wrong about the most basic of things.”
Modules on UK policy-making and political governance will soon move to Northern Ireland.
Scottish modules happened earlier this year.
Hearings could continue into 2026 as multiple issues remain to be reviewed.
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
