Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:48 pm on 15 November 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:48, 15 November 2022

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.