SPEAK TO ME BORIS!

First Minister hits out at lack of ‘reliable contact’ with PM He blames ‘voices who still want all decisions made in Whitehall’ AS ALMOST HALF OF WALES ENTERS LOCKDOWN, DON’T MISS OUR EXCLUSIVE DRAKEFORD Q&A:

WALES’ First Minister has said some Conservative Government “voices” do not like devolution and want all decisions to be made in Whitehall.

Mark Drakeford told LBC yesterday that he wanted more “regular and reliable” contact with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, not “sporadic” meetings then weeks of silence.

He said other than a conversation on Monday and Cobra meeting on Tuesday, the last time he spoke to Mr Johnson was in May.

Mr Drakeford added: “My frustration has been that those conversations have not been regular enough and not reliable enough.

“What I don’t want are one-off, sporadic, last-minute meetings, called in a crisis and then weeks of silence.”

When asked why there had only been “sporadic” contact, Mr Drakeford said: “Well, taking a generous view, the Prime Minister is incredibly busy, he has a big range of responsibilities and we are all reacting to very quickly changing circumstances.

“I think there’s another explanation, which is that there are some voices in the Conservative Government who have found out that devolution exists after 20 0 years, found they don’t much like it, , think it will be much better if we returned eturned 20 years and all the decisions s were made in Whitehall, and would uld rather not be spending their time me talking to us very much.”

His comments came hours before Llanelli came me under new lockdown restrictions ns last night, the first town in Wales les to face fresh curbs.

Cardiff and Swansea ansea will come under lockdown from m 6pm tonight.

Cardiff will be the first capital city in Great eat

Britain to be placed under a local lockdown.

It means 1.5 million people in Wales, just under half the population, will be under local lockdowns from the start of next week due to “rapidly” rising coronavirus cases.

Measures are already in place in Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The restrictions for Cardiff and Swansea, Wales’ two biggest cities, and Llanelli in Carmarthenshire mean people will not be able to enter or leave the areas without a reasonable excuse.

Extended household rules will be suspended, meaning people will also not be able to meet indoors w i th anyone they do not live with, while people must also work at home if possible. Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the situation was “real and very serious”, with coronavirus transmission driven by households mixing indoors and in pubs.

He said there had also been some imported coronavirus transmission, mainly from European holidays. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Gething said the Welsh Government will also be looking at the data from Vale of Glamorgan and Neath Port Talbot to see if new restrictions were needed.

He added: “We are also going to take the opportunity to look at the data from N Neath Port Talbot, which is i the neighbouring borou borough with Swansea, and Vale of Glamorgan, wh which neighbours Cardiff, to see if we do need to act there as well.

“The data we get toda today and tomorrow will b be very important.” Mr Gething warned that i if there was no improve improvement the Welsh Governm Government will need to consid consider further restrictions.

He added: “We are doing this because we have to try to avoid much more significant harm and if we can’t see a turnaround in the collective discipline that saw us out of lockdown through the summer then we are going to have to consider taking further measures.”

On Friday, there were a further 320 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Wales, bringing the total in the country to 22,215.

Mr Gething also said the spread of Covid-19 was not just in younger adults but was now being seen in older people in their 40s and 50s. He said hospital admissions were already rising in Wales and the new restrictions were intended to stop “much more significant harm taking place”.

He said: “I’d say we are in a comparable place to the end of February and, of course, we ended large parts of NHS activity about two weeks later, we were in full lockdown three and a bit weeks later.

“We have seen a sharp rise in cases in all of the areas where we are taking local restrictions and it is being driven by indoor household contact, so more people than should be in that household bubble going in and mixing.

“That has extended out into li