2. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 20 May 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:58, 20 May 2020

Well, Llywydd, I didn't have the opportunity myself to hear Prime Minister's questions today, though Mick Antoniw has very powerfully given an account of the debate there. Could I put his points in the wider context? This week, we have been seeing again immigration proposals from the UK Government that seek to distinguish between high-skilled and low-skilled people coming into our country, and to have arbitrary salary caps that prevent some people from being recruited to do vital work. Just to say again that, just as in the instance that Mick Antoniw has reported, so in that general case as well, the Welsh Government rejects that view of the world. If you have a skill that is necessary to be a care worker, you are the person still to do that job. To regard you as low skilled and therefore not worthy of being recruited into our public services, I think, is an anathema. The issue that Mick Antoniw has referred to, and was, as he said, debated earlier today elsewhere, is part of a wider pattern in which the UK Government declines to recognise the value of those people who carry out these vitally important front-line services, and that is, clearly, not a view that is at all shared here in Wales.