Gove and co fly from London to talks in Cardiff

UK Government ministers flew from London to Cardiff rather than using a train, saying it was “cost effective”.

Former Environment Secretary Michael Gove was one of those in the Welsh capital along with other ministers for a meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday.

The Joint Ministerial Committee was chaired by First Minister Mark Drakeford and attended by Counsel General and Brexit Minister Jeremy Miles, and ministers from the UK

Government and other devolved administrations. The meeting was held at Cathays Park.

A plane came from RAF Northolt and the UK Government said using the plane was cost effective.

The meeting was held in the afternoon – meaning super-off peak tickets would have been valid on the railway. Same-day off-peak tickets for the hour-and-47-minute journey cost less than £50.

A UK Government spokesmansaid: “Six UK government ministers and their support staff travelled to Cardiff to attend the JMC as well as undertaking other official engagements. They travelled in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”

Labour’s shadow environment secretary, Luke Pollard, said: “The UK is hosting the UN’s global conference on carbon reduction in Glasgow in November and ministers should be demonstrating they get how serious the climate crisis is by using trains and buses wherever possible.”

Labour AM Huw Irranca-Davies tweeted: “Seriously. We can show better leadership on #ClimateEmergency than this!”

Conservative Andrew RT Davies highlighted a question he had asked Mr Drakeford on January 28 about how many internal flights Welsh Government cabinet members had taken since the start of this Assembly in 2016. The answer was 101.