Airports

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:42, 26 January 2021

Well, Llywydd, the failure of the Conservative Party is manifest here in Wales and it's aided and abetted by their compatriots at the UK Government as well. On five separate occasions, Llywydd, since the beginning of December, at senior official level and ministerially, we have tried to get an answer out of the UK Government about the £100 million support fund for airports that they have repeatedly publicised. Now, we know that £8 million of that is to go to Bristol Airport—an airport that the UK Government itself cites, when it has refused to devolve air passenger duty to us here in Wales, on the grounds of competition with Bristol. Yet, they pump millions of pounds of money into Bristol while denying any support to airports here in Wales. It is the actions of the UK Conservatives that are undermining support for the union right across the United Kingdom, and it's the actions of the Welsh Conservatives, in the way in which they fail to support initiatives such as creating a national airport for Wales, that renders them, as the former First Minister says, unfit to be part of a Government here in Wales.