Questions now from party leaders. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, it's good to see you back after last week being away with COVID. A timely reminder that, obviously, the virus is still out there and taking people out of their normal day's activities.

First Minister, last week—two weeks ago, I should say—the chair of the UK-wide COVID inquiry highlighted that the work that they would be able to undertake wouldn't be able to encapsulate all the matters that she would wish for to be taken into account here in Wales, given the volume of work that she has on her plate and the amount of work that is coming in to that inquiry, although she would, along with her colleagues in that inquiry, endeavour to undertake as full an investigation and scrutiny of the actions of the Welsh Government as possible. In light of her comments, do you not think it is now appropriate that we do have that Welsh-wide COVID inquiry, so that those who lost loved ones through the COVID crisis can get the answers they require to bring closure on what is a particularly dark time in their lives?

Llywydd, first of all, I thank the leader of the opposition for what he said. We know that he himself has had experience of just how difficult an illness COVID can be, and he's right to draw attention to the fact that thousands of people continue to fall ill from COVID every week here in Wales. That has an impact in those individuals' lives, and it has an impact on our ability to sustain public services and private businesses as well. COVID certainly isn't over.

I read what Baroness Hallett, Judge Hallett, said in opening that particular part of the inquiry. I don't think myself she was suggesting that she would do more if she could. She was simply explaining to people that, within the timescales available to her and her determination to produce a report within the timescale that can have an influence on the way in which future decisions are made, in everything that she does, she will have to focus on the issues that she believes to have the most potential to provide good information, answers and guidance for the future. I'm very happy to leave the inquiry to her now, and that's what we will be doing.

It is a matter of public record that those comments are there, that the chair of the UK inquiry did highlight the limitations due to the workload of the UK inquiry. It is a matter of record that, in the same interview or same comments that she was making, she highlighted that if an independent inquiry was to be established here in Wales, she would readily, along with her colleagues, work with that independent inquiry. The only person stopping an independent inquiry here in Wales is you, First Minister, or can you name another organisation that is actually against the principle of establishing an independent inquiry here in Wales to give answers to those people who lost loved ones through the COVID pandemic?

Llywydd, I've explained time after time, and I don't intend to take up the time of the Senedd this afternoon in repeating simply what I said on 19 October last year, 30 November, 25 January, 23 May—these are all occasions on which I have answered this question from the Member. You may not like the answer—I don't expect that you will do—but the answer doesn't change by simply going on and asking the same question. I believe that the best way to obtain the answers that people in Wales want to what happened here in Wales, including everything that will be provided by the Welsh Government—and I can tell you that the Welsh Government is disclosing hundreds of thousands of documents to the inquiry. The idea that it will not look at the matters that are important to Wales, I don't think will be borne out by the work of the inquiry. That is the way in which people will get the right, rounded, insightful answers that they quite rightly wish for, and that remains the policy of the Welsh Government. 

The question I put to you, First Minister, was: could you name another organisation that shared your belief that we shouldn't have an independent public inquiry into COVID here in Wales? I notice from your answer that you weren't able to put another organisation's name on the Record of the Senedd. And, please, take as long as you want, because I'm sure that the public will show great interest in your responses today. When I did raise this with you some weeks ago, you said, 'There is the impotency of opposition, and here is the potency of Government'. The potency of Government, in this case, is stopping an independent inquiry.

We will, in a couple of weeks' time, lay a motion in the Senedd to bring forward a Senedd committee to actually have an inquiry on this particular matter. Whether the Senedd votes for it or not, that is a matter of democratic accountability here in the Chamber, but that's what the opposition can do. Will you lift the whip on your backbenchers to support such a motion, because, certainly, when I'm speaking to colleagues from your side as well as the other end of the M4—Chris Evans, for example, from Islwyn—they want to see that independent inquiry because they believe it is the right thing to do, and it is only through your obstinance that we're not getting that inquiry here in Wales? So, let's see how the votes stack up here, and let's see whether you need to whip your Members to support the blocking of a COVID public inquiry here in Wales. 

Well, Llywydd, I'm not going to respond to a suggestion that I've never seen, when there's not a single piece of paper in front of me to explain what the leader of the opposition thinks he will be putting in front of the Senedd. Of course, when he makes his mind up and puts something down, then I'll look at it carefully and my group will decide what it is that they wish to do. But, the idea that you can treat matters of this seriousness in that casual way, that you think it is possible just to make a suggestion out of nowhere—nothing at all, not a single document to offer us on what would be the scope of such an inquiry, what powers will it have, how will it go about its business. When we have a serious proposition from you, then we will look at it seriously, but this afternoon, we've certainly not had that. And if he wants me to name an organisation with whom I've had discussions and who believe that the best way of getting answers to people's questions is via the UK inquiry, then I'll refer him, as I have many times before, to the conversations that I had with the Prime Minister, and that he supported at the time, because in my discussions with the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, it was clear that a UK inquiry able to mobilise all the necessary information and have the powers that it would need to make those inquiries, was the preferred way forward. I've told you before: I supported the UK Prime Minister at the time, even as you have constantly attempted to undermine them.

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price.

Diolch, Llywydd. Today marks 100 years of Labour's electoral dominance, making your party, in your words,

'the most successful party in the democratic world'.

I have to say, this morning, there wasn't quite that celebratory mood when I and other Plaid Cymru colleagues stood in the rain in solidarity with striking trade unionists to mark some other historic moments; the largest average vote in favour of strike action by the PCS union in its history, covering 126 separate workplaces, including this institution, the Senedd; the first time the National Association of Head Teachers have balloted their members for strike action over pay in their 125-year history; the first nation-wide strike in the Royal College of Nurses' 106-year history. Now, Keir Starmer has repeatedly refused to back striking workers, saying that he understands why strikes were taking place, but was not prepared to stand with workers on picket lines. What do you think Keir Hardie would have made of that? And more to the point, are you prepared to stand in solidarity with workers when your British leader, sadly, is not?

Well, Llywydd, I recognise the anger and the disappointment that many public service workers experience at the moment. When your wages have been held down through a decade of austerity, and you're now faced with wage rises below the level of inflation, then it is absolutely understandable why workers in those circumstances feel in the way that they do and why they vote to take action in the way that they have. And this Labour Government has no ambiguity at all in putting on the record our understanding of the way in which public sector workers have been driven to take the action that they do. I'm very happy to repeat that and put it on the record again this afternoon.

Sir Keir has said that the single most important thing he could do for striking workers is to usher in a Labour Government. And, yes, if that was a radical Government that can help deliver fairer funding for Wales and greater fairness all round through the kinds of progressive changes that our party's Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts, is proposing through her Tax Reform Commission Bill, it could make a very important difference to our lives. But in Wales, we need not usher in a Labour Government, we already have one. And it's the Welsh Labour Government that nurses, in a few weeks, joined soon by teachers, probably, will be striking against. To avoid the labour movement effectively being in dispute with the Government led by a party that shares its name, can the First Minister say if the option of using the income tax powers that we have in a progressive way, including, if necessary, the basic rate, is something that you will at least explore to avoid the hyper austerity that is quite probably soon to be meted upon us?  

Well, Llywydd, I agree with the leader of Plaid Cymru that nothing is more important to making a difference to the future of working people in the United Kingdom than a Labour Government in Westminster, and I look forward to doing everything that we can, as a party here in Wales, as we have for 100 years, to make the maximum contribution we can to that Labour victory at the earliest possible opportunity. My discussions with trade union colleagues—and I was having them earlier this morning—make it very apparent to me that they understand the dilemma of a Welsh Labour Government here. We have a fixed budget that we have to determine, and if we pay people more than we are funded to—and we have met the pay review body recommendations, in both health and education—if we pay people more than that, then that money has to come from somewhere else.

Now, I might, for a moment, just draw attention to the experience in Scotland. There, the sister party of Plaid Cymru has indeed offered health workers a higher increase than we have been able to here in Wales. Did it prevent the RCN in Scotland voting for strike action in every single health board in Scotland? No, it did not. And because the SNP are in Government in Scotland, they have to face up to the very difficult dilemmas that come with the decisions that they have made, and I respect them for the way in which they've made those decisions. But let us be clear, Llywydd, the SNP Government, in the last two weeks, has announced that it is taking £400 million out of the budget of the Scottish NHS in order to pay for the additional uplift in workers' pay within the NHS. That's a decision that the Scottish Government has made, and it's within its own political authority to do so. What we need to hear from Plaid Cymru is if they believe that the Welsh Government should increase the wages of workers in the health service beyond that for which we are funded, where would the money come from here?

I look forward to the First Minister allowing us to go through the books with him. Will he organise a briefing when we can actually look, line by line, at where we can reprioritise the budget in a progressive, socialist way?

Now, can the First Minister clarify one thing? You referred to discussions. Are you willing to enter into negotiations with the health unions in the pay dispute, and indeed with all the public sector unions that are balloting for strike action? The Labour Party in Westminster routinely calls on the Government there to get around the table in situations such as this. The Labour Party in Scotland is making that point as well. Are you prepared to get around the table? The Royal College of Nursing has told us that the health Minister has declined to negotiate with the Welsh Partnership Forum, a body comprised of trade unions, NHS leaders and Welsh Government representatives, which, according to the RCN, has a long history of productive social partnership on matters related to pay. Why are you refusing to meet with them, when social partnership is meant to be a core principle to you, and you are literally the Labour Party? I mean, is that what success after 100 years now looks like?

Well, Llywydd, first of all, I'm grateful to the leader of Plaid Cymru for agreeing to come to a detailed briefing on the circumstances that we will face here in Wales once we have seen the results of this Thursday's autumn statement.

Llywydd, all strike action ends in the end in negotiation, and that's the way I believe that the current difficulties that we see in public services here in Wales will be resolved. A Labour Government never refuses to talk to our partners, but it has to be done in a way that is fair to all partners in any partnership forum. The RCN is not the only union that represents workers in the health service, and other trade unions are consulting their members currently. You have to carry out these negotiations in a way that recognises the interests of more than one group or one organisation. But the principle that strike action is resolved in the end through negotiations is one that we absolutely understand, because this is a Government, despite the very difficult times we are in and will go on being in, that believes firmly and without hesitation that social partnership is the right way to make sure that very challenging issues can be resolved properly between us.