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The Welsh Government said First Minister Mark Drakeford is self-isolating “as a precaution” after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.
Mr Drakeford appeared before the Welsh Affairs Committee on Thursday from an outbuilding at the bottom of his garden, where he lived alone earlier during the pandemic when his wife and mother-in-law were shielding.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The First Minister is self-isolating as a precaution after being in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.”
Welsh government guidelines state anyone told to self-isolate by contact tracers must do so for 10 days to limit the potential spread of Covid-19.
The announcement came after the Welsh leader used his appearance before Westminster MPs to say his relationship with the prime minister Boris Johnson was ‘remote’ over the course of the pandemic – with the pair having only formally met once.
Asked by committee chairman and Conservative MP Stephen Crabbe who asked if there was a “meeting of minds” between the two men Mr Drakeford said: “I would have to describe my relationship with the Prime Minister as remote.
“Both in the sense that I’ve met him only once myself – I’ve been at a number of meetings where there’s been large numbers of other people present – and he is yet to call a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee of first ministers and himself.
“In that sense I would say I’ve had a very modest level of contact with the Prime Minister. And the remoteness isn’t just in that way, I’m afraid we rarely have a meeting of minds.”
He added that he believed the way the UK Government engages with the devolved Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish administrations “is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the United Kingdom”, saying that there had been more frequent meetings called by Number 10 since the new year, but they were still being arranged “on a relatively random basis”.
He said: “There is no institutional architecture to make the United Kingdom work. It is all ad-hoc, random, and made up as we go along. And I’m afraid that really is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the UK.
“And if I have an anxiety about the lack of regular engagement between the Prime Minister and other parts of the UK, it is more that I think without that then the security of the future of the UK becomes more difficult.
“Without the Prime Minster playing his part in all of that, I think it undermines the efforts of those of us – and I include myself certainly in this – who want to craft a successful future for the UK.”
Additional reporting by agencies
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