No clamour for fresh vote on Covid passes despite Senedd farce
NO RE-VOTE should be held into Covid passes being introduced in Wales after a chaotic night in the Senedd, according to Welsh politicians.
The First Minister called Tuesday night’s vote “extraordinary”.
Welsh Government was on course to lose the vote on whether Covid passes should be introduced from Wales. Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Lib Dem MS Jane Dodds had all said they would vote against it.
The voting record shows Conservative Andrew RT Davies did not vote, nor did Labour’s Buffy Williams.
Conservative group leader Mr Davies was missing due to illness, and Labour had agreed one of their MSS would not vote in an arrangement known as pairing.
The Llywydd Elin Jones cannot vote, nor Labour’s David Rees, who is her deputy.
It meant the result would have been a tie, meaning the deciding vote would have gone to Presiding Officer Ms Jones, who would have had to vote against the motion.
The Conservatives have failed to respond to questions about where Gareth Davies was and he has not updated his social media.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Mr Drakeford was asked if the vote should be put again.
He responded: “Well it was an extraordinary moment, but what was really extraordinary, was the fact that opposition parties were not prepared to support this simple measure, which will help to keep people safe from coronavirus.”
Presenter Nick Robinson then asked: “Do you take the point though that given someone would have voted against it, would have defeated this measure if they could have got through on Zoom, it will reduce the legitimacy in many people’s eyes?”
To that, the First Minister said: “The vote is taken on the floor of the parliament, the way the vote is conducted is not for the Government, that is for the parliament. It is members’ responsibilities to make sure they are in the chamber or on Zoom and 59 of 60 members managed to do that.”
Asked whether the use of the pass, which will come into force from Monday, would end up penalising certain businesses, Mr Drakeford said: “The point of the Covid pass is to allow businesses to stay open. If we don’t have this defence and coronavirus numbers rise over the autumn and the winter, then these other venues will be the first to be closed. So the purpose of it is not to penalise any business, it is to give that business an extra defence to allow it to continue to operate.”
He was asked if scientific modelling was showing closures will return to Wales.
Mr Drakeford responded: “Well, numbers in Wales at the moment are very high indeed, higher than they’ve been at any point in the pandemic, over 1,000 young people per 100,000 in the population are falling ill with coronavirus. So,
we take the advice of Sage, which says that you need to take measures early, and you need to take those low hanging measures that you can put into place easily, and that builds your defence against coronavirus as we go into the most difficult time of the year. But Covid pass is very easy to use, it’s widely used already, we are focusing on the high risk venues, it will help to keep Wales open, and to keep Wales safe.”
He was asked if there was “complacency” on display in England.
“Well a vaccine passport, which is a tougher measure than we are introducing now in Wales, is on the Prime Minister’s plan B. So it’s already being planned for England should numbers be in a position where that would be necessary so I don’t think that is complacency, I think that is showing that governments across the United Kingdom are contemplating measures that may be necessary if we have a tough autumn and winter. Here in Wales, the Covid pass will now be part of our landscape. It’s going to happen in Scotland where the vaccine certification system is coming in, and it’s being planned for in England.”
Mr Robinson said: “You’re saying, in other words that those people who say our First Minister doesn’t want us to have the sort of fun they’re able to have in England, they’ve got it wrong.”
Mr Drakeford responded: “They can absolutely have their fun. And by having the Covid pass system in place, they will be able to go on having that fun for longer.”
Nightclub industry representatives labelled the vote a “shambles”, and Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said he was “devastated”.
He told BBC Radio Wales yesterday: “It is devastating, especially based on the fact we felt it went through on a technicality. From our perspective, given that one of the Conservative MSS was unable to get through to the vote, we feel there should be a re-vote. We don’t feel that that was a true outcome in terms of all parties in the Senedd.
“Our confidence was lifted when Plaid Cymru said they were going to vote against. It is such a pivotal vote that affects so many lives, I think it is important it is looked at.
“Our members were devastated and outraged at the outcome. They feel it needs to be redressed.”
However, Health Minister Eluned Morgan told the broadcaster the Welsh Government would press ahead with the pass saying “the vast majority of the people of Wales support us”.
Plaid Cymru’s health spokesperson Rhun ap Iorwerth also rejected a re-vote and said his party would concentrate on improving the plan.
The Plaid MS was asked about Gareth Davies’ non-attendance. He said: “We don’t have votes quite this important coming up that often, you kind of have to make sure you’re there on time or you take the responsibility, I’m afraid”.
Conservative MS Peter Fox said a re-run “would be a difficult thing to do”.
“Democracy has a set of processes, and you have to follow them and, you know, sometimes you don’t like the outcome of the decision or the circumstances in which you’ve created a decision but democracy is what it is and if you start eroding that where are you ending up?”
He added he wasn’t “100% sure” about the circumstances behind Mr Davies not voting but “we’ll find out in the next 24 hours”.