Boris Johnson ‘largely absent’ early in Covid crisis, says Welsh first minister

Mark Drakeford has criticised Boris Johnson for being ‘largely absent’ early on during the Covid pandemic, likening Michael Gove, who took a key role between the UK and Welsh governments, to ‘a centre forward without a team lined up behind him, and where the manager was largely absent’.

Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► http://bit.ly/guardianwiressub

The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://bit.ly/3uhA7zg

Sign up to the Guardian’s free new daily newsletter, First Edition ► http://theguardian.com/first-edition

Website ► https://www.theguardian.com
Facebook ►https://www.facebook.com/theguardian
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/guardian
Instagram ► https://instagram.com/guardian

The Guardian on YouTube: 
The Guardian ► https://bit.ly/guardiannewssubs
Guardian Australia ► https://bit.ly/guardianaussubs
Guardian Football ► https://bit.ly/gdnfootballsubs
Guardian Sport ► https://bit.ly/gdnsportsubs
Guardian Live ► https://bit.ly/guardianlivesubs

#Covid #CovidInquiry #MarkDrakeford

You say at paragraph 164 of your module 2 witness statement you describe Mr Gove as a skillful lead Minister but uh you say he was a center forward without a team lined up behind him and where the manager was largely absent perhaps for those less familiar with football can

You explain what you mean by that well the absent manager was the Prime Minister because he was never at uh these meetings or at the table and while Mr go a senior minister with responsibility for these matters whose voice would count in discussions with his colleagues uh he has influence rather than the

Determinative impact which a message from the Prime Minister would have message from the prime minister to a cabinet minister says I would like this to happen is in effect an instruction Mr go picking up the phone would have to say what do you think would this be a

Good idea he’s he’s a persu and he’s he’s a skillful Persuader but that’s what he is and that’s what I meant there was a limit to the extent to which he was able to discharge the remit of leading a foration approach across the UK government so would it be right to

Say that the the calls with Mr G whilst whilst useful in your view were not an adequate replacement for meetings with the U First ministers and the Prime Minister during the pandemic they needed to be supplemented by some additional regularity of contact between first ministers I wouldn’t expect to

Meet the Prime Minister every week uh and meeting Mr Gove every week was certainly useful but at certain points in that Weekly cycle a meeting with a prime minister would have allowed that head of government impact to have been brought to bear