Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford loses temper with Tories in Senedd

Media caption,

The first minister was reacting to a series of questions about poor ambulance response times

By David Deans

BBC Wales political reporter

Wales’ first minister lost his temper in the Senedd on Tuesday under questioning from the Welsh Conservative leader.

Mark Drakeford erupted in anger as he accused Andrew RT Davies’ party of making a mess of the UK’s budget and reputation.

It followed a heated exchange where Mr Davies called for a solution to poor ambulance response times.

Presiding Officer Elin Jones asked the Senedd to calm down after the outburst.

Both men had raised their voices during First Minister’s Questions, gesticulating at each other.

The Welsh Conservatives accused the first minister of looking to blame the UK government for his own ministers’ failings in a “fit of fury”.

In response Mr Drakeford’s government said the Welsh Labour leader was reflecting the anger of people in Wales.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt warned on Monday that there were spending cuts to come, after he axed most of the measures of his recently-sacked predecessor’s mini-budget.

Cuts to services in England would have a knock-on impact on the Welsh government’s own budget, used to fund the NHS, schools and other services run from Cardiff.

Such a move would put Welsh government ministers under pressure and would likely see them having to make cuts themselves.

What happened?

Raising his voice with the Welsh Tory leader in First Minister’s Questions, Mr Drakeford said it was “shocking that you think that you can turn up here this afternoon with the mess that your party has made, to the budgets of this country, to the reputation of this country around the world”.

Angrily flipping the pages of his briefing notes, he told Mr Davies: “You think you can turn up here this afternoon and claim some sort of moral high ground? What sort of world do you belong in?”

After Mr Drakeford finished Elin Jones, who chairs proceedings, intervened.

“I understand that the arguments and the feelings run high on these issues from a variety of perspectives,” she said.

“I understand some of the shouting taking place but I won’t have people pointing in anger and gesticulating in anger at other people. Can we just take a moment just to calm down.”

Image caption,

Andrew RT Davies repeated accusations that Wales had a “third world” NHS

In his questions Mr Davies had raised two examples of long waits, including a story from Walesonline of a man who was stuck on a floor waiting 15 hours.

He read out quotes from the man’s daughter accusing Wales of having a health service like a “third world country” and that Aneurin Bevan, the Labour minister who oversaw the creation of the NHS, would be turning in his grave.

In response, Mr Drakeford accused Mr Davies of being “partly responsible for the mess we’re in” because he supported Liz Truss for the Conservative leadership.

He objected to the description of the NHS, and in response Mr Davies accused Mr Drakeford of failing to offer a solution.

“You haven’t said once in response to my two questions the solution that the government is proposing to take this pressure out of the ambulance service and allow them to get on with the job that they do,” he said.

Mr Drakeford said the Welsh government wants to invest more money in the ambulance service and have more staff, and for ambulances to know that hospitals can receive patients.

But in his answer the first minister criticised the Conservatives: “They’ve had cuts to their pay because of the policy of your government and now they face cuts to the budgets that the health service itself will have at its disposal.”

‘Shameful lack of remorse’

After the angry Senedd scenes, Mr Davies said in a statement: “Rather than take responsibility for Labour’s poor running of the NHS, Mark Drakeford looked to pass the blame onto the UK government, despite the fact that health in Wales has been under Labour control for 25 years.”

A Welsh government spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned about the position the UK government has put us in and the eye watering scale of cuts facing public services in Wales.

“The first minister was reflecting the anger of people in Wales who are now having to pay for the mistakes made by the UK government.”

The events on Tuesday come two weeks after Mr Drakeford angered the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group through comments he made in First Minister’s Questions.

The first minister said they had moved on from calls for a Wales-wide Covid inquiry.

Last week Mr Drakeford accused the leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, of offering “pious aspirations and accusations that somehow other people are not as holy as he is”.

Mr Price, who called for better public sector pay, is in a co-operation agreement with Mr Drakeford.

What’s behind the emotional outburst from the first minister?

It is not unreasonable for the leader of the opposition to want to scrutinise the Welsh government’s handling of the NHS.

But with stubbornly high waiting times, staff shortages and no solution in sight, this long standing issue has become increasingly sensitive.

Add to that increasing gloom amongst Welsh ministers about the budget cuts that could be on their way from the Treasury and resentment at the recent chaos supplied by the UK government.

And there’s one more thing to consider: Mark Drakeford will be standing down in the next few years.

At the risk of stating the obvious, facing down public sector strikes and slashing budgets is not what he wants for his final chapter.