6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: COVID restrictions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:53 pm on 19 January 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Gareth Davies Gareth Davies Conservative 4:53, 19 January 2022

Quite frankly, I'm quite disgusted in the Member for Ynys Môn and Plaid Cymru's stance on this whole issue, as they've decided to abstain from voting on this. They say it's all hindsight and that it doesn't matter, but then in the next breath they say, 'Oh, we're still living with COVID and we're dealing with such pertinent issues.' So, I think you've got a bit of an internal battle there as to which road you're going down. So, I think it's quite rich for the Member for Ynys Môn to be calling the Welsh Conservatives' stance disgusting when they're not prepared to take a stance on it themselves.

At the weekend, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer unveiled his party's 10-point living with COVID plan, and demanded an end to lockdowns. A string of shadow Ministers did the media rounds, criticising the UK's plan B as unnecessary. Yet here in Wales we have a Welsh Labour Government implementing more stringent measures at every juncture. The Welsh Government needs to urgently unveil its own 10-point plan and rule out future lockdowns.

As my colleague Russell George outlined when opening the debate, he welcomed the Welsh Government delivering on the Welsh Conservatives' demand for a road map out of lockdown restrictions, and we welcome a road map to more liberty, to more freedoms. He mentioned some of the effects on businesses and that each pub in Wales is due to lose £16,000, and some of the issues near the border, with people travelling to Shrewsbury from his own constituency, and to Chester from mine, just to have a night out and a little bit of freedom for a weekend or so. It's not too much to ask when the evidence supports it, I don't think.

Laura mentioned about the chaos, the political side of the decisions not based on science, the draconian element of it, the balance of harm and some of the details in lifting some of the restrictions—