Conservative Lord happy Covid ‘exposed the shortcomings’ of Welsh Government

A former chair of the Conservatives in Wales has said that he is glad that the Welsh Government were given powers to handle the Covid-19 pandemic because it “exposed” their “shortcomings”.

Lord Byron Davies was responding to reports that Boris Johnson had ‘regrets’ about allowing the devolved nations to wield Covid-19 powers.

According to The Sun, the UK Prime Minister would if he had his time again use civil contingencies powers to cut out the Welsh and Scottish governments from the pandemic response.

But former Gower MP and Assembly Member for South West Wales, Byron Davies, said that he was “rather pleased No10 adopted the course that it did”.

“It has exposed the enormous shortcomings in the Welsh Government’s ability to manage a crisis and above all deliver such a positive result for the Welsh Conservatives in the recent ITV Wales poll!” he said.

Frankly, @adrianmasters84 I’m rather pleased No10 adopted the course that it did, it has exposed the enormous shortcomings in @WelshGovernment ‘s ability to manage a crisis and above all deliver such a positive result for @WelshConserv in the recent @ITVWales poll! https://t.co/hVYMiJNviZ

— Lord Davies of Gower (@Byron_Davies) March 23, 2021

The poll published yesterday suggested that Welsh Labour could drop seven seats to the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru in the Senedd election on May 6.

If accurate it would represent by far Labour’s worst result at Senedd elections, surpassing their previous worst result of 26 in 2007.

Since the start of the pandemic last year, the number of deaths from all causes in Wales is 39,454 and of these, 7,717 deaths (19.6%) mentioned Covid-19, 6,123 deaths above the five-year average.