Understandable anger at tests deal

THE disclosure of emails relating to the Welsh Government’s failed attempt to buy Covid tests from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche fills in some gaps in our knowledge about the way Wales appears to have been stitched up.

It was clear when the events occurred just over a year ago that something had gone badly wrong.

At a time when there was growing awareness of the need to do far more testing, Health Minister Vaughan Gething believed Public Health Wales had secured a contract with Roche that would enable the number of tests to be ratcheted up significantly.

Having to admit that the deal had fallen through must have been an extremely bitter pill to swallow.

In retrospect it was a mistake to make an announcement that enough supplies for thousands of tests a day had been secured before a written contract was in place.

The emails that have now been released show there was understandable anger within Public Health Wales when it became clear that the UK Government had intervened to stop Wales getting the tests it believed it had been promised.

What made the Welsh Government appear weak at the time was the failure of Mr Gething to be candid about what had happened.

It now seems clear that he was anxious to avoid a confrontation with Westminster during a period when Wales needed to rely on the UK Government for cooperation on multiple fronts during the pandemic.

While much has been made of the Welsh Government’s ability to diverge from London in its handling of the crisis, the fact is that on the crucial issue of urgent supplies, the UK Government had the whip hand.

Ministers like Mr Gething appear to have been concerned that if they were openly critical of Westminster, Wales could be discriminated against in other ways.

It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that in the circumstances there was little more that the Welsh Government could have done.

Mr Gething - or Mark Drakeford - could have gone out on a limb and complained publicly about the high-handed and unfair treatment Wales was subjected to.

But doing so could have led to further problems.

The time to go big on this will be when an official inquiry takes place.