Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 12 January 2021.
Well, Llywydd, thanks to Alun Davies for both of those questions. In fact, a constituent sent me the quotes from the person who asked the question in which he invited the President of the United States to open his office in Pontypridd, an office as you remember that never did open, many thousands of pounds of public money having been wasted in the process. The same constituent also reminded me that Mr Bennett had placed an amendment in front of the Senedd in December saying that he believed that the new level of restrictions that were being introduced in Wales were disproportionate. Well, he'll have seen now that the rest of the United Kingdom has followed suit. It was not disproportionate; it was simply necessary. He was wrong on that, as he's wrong on what he has asked me today.
And on this complete canard about £1 billion just sitting in the Welsh Government, Llywydd, in November, we were two thirds of the way through the financial year and we had spent two thirds of our budget. At the end of December, we were three quarters of the way through the financial year, and we'd spent three quarters of our budget. We've spent 80 per cent of the budget now in January. Can you imagine anything more irresponsible than urging the Welsh Government to be entirely spent out of our budget with a quarter of the financial year still to go, and a very demanding and challenging quarter as well? I thought the points that were made by Conservative MPs were not simply misguided, Llywydd, they were foolish and they were designed to misinform, and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to put that record straight this afternoon.