The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has launched a scathing attack on the UK government’s handling of the Covid crisis, but admitted his own administration should have taken “more stringent action” sooner as the pandemic swept the world.
Appearing at the Welsh leg of the Covid inquiry, Drakeford likened Boris Johnson to an absent football manager at the start of the pandemic. He also claimed it was Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who at one point blocked the banning of mass gatherings such as sporting events and concerts.
He criticised the former UK health secretary Matt Hancock, accusing him of not having a grip on which powers were devolved, and attacked the former Welsh secretary Simon Hart for focusing energy on scrutinising the Labour-led Welsh administration rather than representing the people of Wales.
Drakeford, who is about to leave his post, conceded that because Wales has an older, poorer and sicker population, it should have reacted more swiftly.
Bereaved families accused Drakeford of trying to deflect attention from his government’s failings, while the Welsh Tories claimed he was playing politics instead of giving the country clear answers.
Asked about relations with the UK government at the start of the pandemic, Drakeford described Michael Gove, who was a point of contact between the UK and Welsh administrations, as “a centre forward without a team lined up behind him, and where the manager was largely absent”.
Drakeford said Johnson was absent from crucial meetings. He told the inquiry that when the then prime minister did attend a meeting at which the possibility of banning mass gatherings was discussed, Johnson ruled against the move, saying: “Dom [Cummings] says no.”
The first minister said he believed Johnson avoided talking to the leaders of devolved nations. “He did not want to give the impression that the prime minister of the UK was somehow on a par with first ministers of other nations,” he said.
Drakeford highlighted what he described as an “extraordinary” statement from Hancock when he said public health was not devolved. The first minister said: “So here is the secretary of state for health in England getting the most basic thing entirely wrong.”
A key theme of the Welsh portion of the inquiry has been whether the Welsh Labour government realised the scale of the threat early enough. The Welsh cabinet had its first formal discussion about Covid on 25 February 2020, a month after Wales’s chief medical officer, Frank Atherton, had told Drakeford there was a significant risk of the disease arriving in Wales.
Drakeford said that in January and February 2020, the priorities for the Welsh government included a no-deal Brexit, flooding and winter pressure on the NHS.
He said there were discussions between ministers before the 25 February cabinet meeting, but when asked if more should have been done to prepare for infection control, he said: “There’s a very plausible case that the signal should have been read earlier and we should have moved what we were doing some weeks earlier.”
Earlier this week, the Welsh health minister, Eluned Morgan, said the government probably should have acted more swiftly. When asked about this, Drakeford replied: “There’s a very plausible case for saying that.” In his witness statement to the inquiry, Drakeford said: “More stringent action could have and should have been taken sooner.”
Speaking outside the hearing, Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who leads Covid-19 Bereaved Families Cymru, said: “I feel Drakeford focused too much on the politics, talking about the UK government and Boris Johnson. We know the Welsh government didn’t prepare. We know they sat on their hands from January to March.”
Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives, said: “Mark Drakeford clearly went into this process with a view of turning it into a party political broadcast. We desperately need a Wales-specific inquiry to get the answers that the people of Wales deserve.”
Later in his evidence, Drakeford criticised Rishi Sunak for not giving the Welsh government the financial support he said it needed for its “firebreak” lockdown in October 2020. He accused Sunak, then the chancellor, of taking a “cynical decision” to put pressure on the Welsh government by not making changes to support workers and employers through the firebreak.
The Welsh first minister appeared to become emotional when he spoke of the impact on children of a pre-Christmas lockdown in 2020. He said some “at risk” young people depended on school for Christmas treats, but “in the end, they will get Christmas back. I cannot give them back their nan”.
Drakeford described the pain of being separated from his mother, who was living in a care home. He said: “I visited my mother on 22 February [2020] at her 90th birthday. I didn’t see her again for many, many months.
“The heartbreak that people feel about being separated is very real. I wish it was easier for people to visit care homes. I wish we had a better formula for it. I very much wish we could have found a different formula for people to be able to meet with loved ones in their final days or hours.”
