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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 11:28 am on 10 June 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 11:28, 10 June 2020

Llywydd, how this Parliament chooses to sit is not a matter for me. If this Parliament decides that it wants to resume meeting partly or wholly in person, then I will appear in front of the Senedd to answer questions. It's entirely a matter for you, not a matter for me.

As to the point the Member made about lawmakers, let me be clear: my view has always been that you cannot make the law and break the law, and that goes for us all, every single Member, in my view. We have the enormous privilege of making decisions that we then ask other people to abide by. We cannot make those decisions, ask them to abide by them and not abide by them ourselves, and that goes for us all. 

Llywydd, I very much support the police in the way that they have responded to demonstrations. It's not for me to instruct them who have to make those decisions on the front line as to how they should respond to the circumstances unfolding in front of them. I think police in Wales have responded in a constructive way to the difficult position they have faced, and I want to support them in the actions they have taken. 

As for demonstrators, I simply say again that I understand and share the anger that they feel and their need to make their views known, but there are other and better ways to do that in the current circumstances. People should not gather when they are in close proximity with one another and in violation of the rules that we have set down. There are many other ways in which views can be known and need to be known and ought to be known, and I urge people in Wales who feel so strongly, as I do myself, to make those views known in ways that do not put themselves and others at risk.