The Welsh first minister has clashed with the chair of the UK Covid inquiry over claims that it was UK government policy in 2020 to prevent devolved nations from imposing more stringent pandemic restrictions.
Giving evidence in Cardiff during the final week of his premiership, Mark Drakeford claimed on Wednesday that the UK had refused to help Wales during its firebreak lockdown because it was “policy” to not let devolved nations go further than UK on Covid restrictions.
In an unusual move, the first minister asked the inquiry to show an internal UK Treasury email discussion dated October 2020 and marked “urgent” and “for CX”, referring to then chancellor Rishi Sunak. The email conveys Drakeford’s request for the UK government to bring forward its Job Retention Scheme – an expanded version of the furlough programme – to cover Wales’s firebreak. The UK-wide scheme was set to come in on 1 November, but the Welsh firebreak was set to begin on October 23.
