Watch: Drakeford’s response to ‘contemptuous’ inability of Jacob Rees-Mogg to name Welsh Tory leader
Mark Drakeford has responded to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s “contemptuous” inability to name the leader of the Welsh Conservatives.
During an interview with James O’Brien on LBC the Welsh First Minister said the Leader of the House of Commons lacked “respect” for the Welsh Tory leader.
Etonian laughed when he was asked name the current holder of the post, Senedd Member Andrew RT Davies, and then failed to do so.
He named the Westminster-appointed Simon Hart instead, who was placed in his post by the UK Prime Minster.
Drakeford also criticised Andrew RT Davies for defending Boris Johnson amid a firestorm surrounding a “bring your own booze” party in Downing Street.
The First Minister suggested that the Tory politician is “a bit out of step I think even with Conservative opinion in Wales”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg's inability to name the leader of the Welsh Conservatives when asked in Parliament was 'contemptuous', First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford tells James O'Brien.@mrjamesob | @PrifWeinidog pic.twitter.com/abva6JrGCe
— LBC (@LBC) January 14, 2022
‘Dismissal’
Mark Drakeford said: “Well it’s contemptuous isn’t it, as it was in his dismissal of the views of the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland. The leader of the welsh Conservatives is actually Andrew RT Davies. He’s a political opponent of mine but he’s the leader of the opposition in the Welsh Parliament.
“He’s an individual who himself suffered very badly from coronavirus from the end of last year. I think political relations ought to be conducted on the basis of respect, and there was anything but respect in the way the Leader of the House of Commons answered that question.
James O’Brien: “I think Andrew RT Davies is a fairly full-throated defender of Boris Johnson’s latest problems this week even”.
Drakeford replied: “Yes, and a bit out of step I think even with Conservative opinion in Wales. There are many other voices inside the Conservative Party who feel that the Prime Minister has simply lost if he ever possessed it the moral authority needed to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”
‘Smile’
When Jacob Rees-Mogg was asked by Labour MP Kevin Brennan if he could name the leader of the Conservatives in Wales, with a smile he said: “My… my honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Wales, is called Simon Hart.”
Slightly awks moment for @Jacob_Rees_Mogg as @KevinBrennanMP challenges him to name the leader of the @WelshConserv pic.twitter.com/IZqek0C4Co
— David Cornock (@davidcornock) January 13, 2022
The question in the House of Commons was asked after Jacob Rees-Mogg branded the leader of the Scottish Conservatives “a lightweight” figure after he called on Boris Johnson to resign.
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A dignified and measured response from Mark Drakeford. Many others would have put the ‘boot in’ in response!
You wonder why anybody would want to be Tory MP in Wales. All that brown nosing and not even a dog biscuit to show for it.
Don’t they realize it is an English party and it’s interests only extend as far as Offa’s Dyke Hadrians Wall, and slightly less than halfway across the Irish sea?
Downing Street staff got plastered and fell into the flowerbeds in the garden. Mark Drakeford lived and worked in his garden shed to protect his wife and her vulnerable mother.
Compare and contrast using the margin to show your workings out.
It must be extremely embarassing for Andrew RT Davies to be confronted with the realisation that within his own Party his position as leader in Wales is unrecognised and dismissed. Having pledged his support to Boris Johnson, despite the fact of the PM’s blatant dishonesty and increasing unpopularity, to find himself unrecognised by his Tory colleagues must be deeply dispiriting for Mr Davies. He has previously stepped down from his leadership of the Welsh Conservatives on grounds of mental stress for which he gained a great deal of understanding and sympathy. One wonders whether he will be able to survive… Read more »
It has to hurt, doesn’t it? When Johnson goes, a lot of political careers will end too.
I actually felt slightly angry for ARTD after that insulting reply from that over-privileged and arrogant pile of c***u. Drakeford would never stoop to such behaviour in a parliamentary debate. I’m reminded of Dic Mortimer’s comparison between Rees-Mogg’s boss, Johnson and the First Minister, in his ‘Election Dissection’ article after the Senedd election last May.
As a Plaid supporter, I must say that Mark Drakeford is flipping decent isn’t he? Wales is lucky to have him.
Me too
And I agree. His appeal is his honesty and total absence of charisma
I’ve said it often enough. The UK is the Tory State and the Tories view Britain as their dominion. The only reform is to dismantle their state and rebuild Britain with new States for its Nations and build new bonds as equals. Does Drakeford understand this?
We all know the likes of Jacob Rees-Smugg is a political dinosaur. No doubt when he goes home to his Somerset pile, gets ferried around in a Barouche wearing a powdered wig.
And where most normal father’s play football or go fishing with their children , he prefers to duel at dawn with his mini-mogg son before taking a ride to the village square to throw rotten vegetables at the poor.