by David Nicholson

WELSH First Minister Mark Drakeford slammed the “reckless” Westminster government at the weekend for potentially allowing the virus to come back into Britain through international travel this summer.

In 2018, Mr Drakeford said that he would not stand for re-election if Labour was successful in the Senedd election following his successful bid to become party leader.

But he told the Morning Star over the weekend that he would not stand down until the Covid-19 pandemic was under control and economic renewal was underway, due to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “reckless character.”

Mr Drakeford said: “Covid-19 is not over and that does make a difference in timing. It is my hope that in 12 months’ time, coronavirus will become a chronic condition like seasonal influenza.

“There is no guarantee of that, and I worry hugely about the recklessness of the current prime minister in relation to decisions about international travel.”

He warned that the biggest threat to the nation managing Covid-19 as a chronic condition is the reimportation of the virus from other parts of the world, particularly new variants arriving in Britain from abroad.

“But I do not think that we can rule out that the Prime Minister will move recklessly to allow foreign travel in a way that will result in the virus being reimported into the United Kingdom and into Wales,” he said.

“All the hard work that everybody has done will be put at risk in the process.

“If it was not for that threat, we would manage local flare-ups without needing to use blunt instruments like lockdown.”