3. Statement by the First Minister: British-Irish Council Summit Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:15 pm on 23 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:15, 23 November 2021

I thank Rhianon Passmore for that, Dirprwy Lywydd. The bilateral meetings that are possible around an event like the BIC are very valuable. I did have such a meeting with Mr Gove. My aim in those meetings is that where I think we can work on things together, I want to emphasise those things, and I want to make progress on positive ground. We did that on a number of issues, the UK inquiry into the COVID experience being one of them. But I cannot leave a meeting of that sort without being as clear as I could be, and I don't think I could have been more direct with the Secretary of State in making it clear to him that the way that Wales has lost out in funding, in decision making, in those things that were promised to Wales as a result of leaving the European Union, and the operation of the internal market Act to achieve all of that, is the single most difficult challenge facing the United Kingdom today, because it poisons relationships. Until the UK Government is prepared to take a different approach to those matters, that will always be there in the background, despite the efforts that Michael Gove himself—I'm happy to acknowledge that—and we, where we can, try to make on areas where more common ground is possible.