Drakeford highlights the frustrations at heart of Brexit talks

WELSH Finance Minister Mark Drakeford gave a damning account of the talks between the leaders of the devolved administrations and the UK Government about the plans for Brexit.

Representatives of the different governments come together behind closed doors for meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) – but Mr Drakeford painted a picture of disorganisation and “constant frustration”.

He told a House of Lords committee that if you wanted to take a “pejorative view” you “would say that the JMC has been a vehicle for managing and suppressing difficult issues rather than addressing and engaging with them”.

Stressing the need for it to be “better run”, he described agendas arriving less than 24 hours before meetings, a lack of minutes which left ministers “unable to track progress” and even uncertainty about the room where the meeting would take place. Mr Drakeford cautioned that these are “perilous times in many ways for the future of the United Kingdom” and warned the UK Government against any attempt to “grab” powers that are today held by Brussels on topics for which the Assembly is responsible.

He said: “[We] are increasingly concerned that our view of things and the UK Government’s view of things may not be identical...

“This is a fundamentally important point from our point of view.

“I sometimes think some UK ministers certainly believe that when the European Union isn’t there that these powers will be somehow free floating and if they grab them first they will be able to make decisions and devolved administrations will have to live with those decisions.

“That’s absolutely not the way that we see it...

“The point I make to UK ministers is that if they wish to operate in that way they will have to legislate to take powers away from the devolved administrations.”

Mr Drakeford did not rule out discussions about how the UK should function post-Brexit but said: “[It] is a matter of us coming to that table voluntarily to do those things rather than the UK Government thinking that it can grab these competencies as we leave the European Union and then impose a set of arrangements on the rest of us.

“I’m putting it in reasonably stark terms because I think [if] we’re not careful this is going to become a very significant area of dispute between the devolved administrations. It matters a lot to Wales.

“You can imagine how legislation to roll back existing devolution would play out in the current Scottish context.”

Former Plaid Cymru leader Dafy-