Mark Drakeford gave an emotional defence of the Welsh Government's policy to include young asylum seekers in their basic income trial.
The First Minister clashed with Tory leader Andrew RT Davies during an exchange in the Senedd. Mr Davies had accused him of prioritising the needs of asylum seekers over the NHS. This row comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused Welsh Labour of handing cash to illegal migrants through the Welsh Government’s basic income trial.
The Conservative leader, who has been increasingly vocal on Twitter in his views on "wokeness", asked Mr Drakeford: "Do you agree with me that that needs to be a key priority, and what isn't a priority for the Government is to seek to pay the £1,600 to people who have not had settled status in this country and act as a pull factor to line the pockets of people smugglers on the other side of the channel?"
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In response the First Minister said it is “shameful” to see children from “war-torn parts of the world” used as an object in a political debate by his opposition here in the Senedd and in the UK Parliament. In an increasingly passionate Mark Drakeford said: "This is a pilot that is aimed at helping some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our community. These are children emerging from the care of public authorities in Wales.
"Amongst them are a very small number of young people who are in the care of a local authority because they have come to Wales from some of the most war-torn places on the face of the planet. They arrive with nobody and with nothing. They are unaccompanied children. They are looked after by our local authorities, and when they leave the care of the local authority, this is a Government...that wishes to see everything done to give those children the best possible start in life. That is what we are talking about: the future of vulnerable children. I have thought over 20 years that that was a shared ambition across this Chamber, and I hope it will continue to be so in the future."
Mr Davies said that he did share that ambition. After an aside comment that minister Lee Waters (who was being vocal in the chamber) "doesn't know what he's doing" Mr Davies added that the money to young asylum seekers could act as a "pull factor" that would "line the pockets of those awful people who take advantage of vulnerable souls on the other side of the channel".
An incredulous Mr Drakeford retorted that it was "plainly nonsensical to imagine that some poor child in a war-torn part of the world thinks they will embark on the astonishingly perilous journeys that people make, to come to Wales, because a tiny handful of children are beneficiaries of our scheme here" adding that it was "shameful" that they should "make those children the object of a nakedly political attempt to make this another dog-whistle issue for the sorts of voters to which the Member unfortunately seeks to appeal."
More than 500 people leaving care in Wales were offered £1,600 or £1,280 after tax per month over a span of two years as part of the Welsh Government's basic income pilot.
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