Tory MP slammed for claim Wales ‘wouldn’t have a single vaccine’ without UK

A Tory MP has been slammed for claiming that Wales “wouldn’t have a single vaccine” without the UK.

Fay Jones, the Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire, came under fire for her reaction to the interview of Plaid Cymru Adam Price on the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC this morning.

Former Welsh Government Minister Alun Davies, suggested that describing Wales as a “helpless supplicant” wasn’t a good way to debate the constitution.

In the interview Andrew Marr began by asking Adam Price if “independence from England” combined with membership of the EU would inevitably lead to a hard border between England and Wales.

Fay Jones said: “I hate the way #Marr phrased his question to Adam Price. He asked about “independence from England” It’s not about England.

“Separatist politicians would destroy the United Kingdom – without which we in Wales wouldn’t have a single vaccine or a single pound of Coronavirus support.”

Former Welsh Government Minister Alun Davies said: “I wonder if she really believe this. There are many debates around the constitution. But describing Wales as a helpless supplicant isn’t a good starting point.”

‘Stockholm syndrome’

Professor Mark Barry said: “Yes, because uniquely, Wales is the only place on the planet where an outward looking, inclusive small independent nation could not exist. It’s this kind of Stockholm syndrome thinking that made me @YesCymru”. 

David Thomas said: “What? We pay taxes in Wales too. Your narrative is based on the presumption that somehow Wales cannot run its own affairs. Are we sub normal? Tell countries like Iceland, Luxembourg and Malta that.”

In his answer to Andrew Marr, Adam Price said: “Well no, we set out in our independence commission report, a 200 page document that we published just before Christmas, that our medium term objective would be for an independent Wales to become members of the European Free Trade Association, the so called Norway solution that we became very familiar with didn’t we with the Brexit debate, which does provide us Andrew with more frictionless access than we currently enjoy to the European single market.

“But it would also give us the flexibility and the autonomy to be able to maintain a single market on this island as well.”