BORIS Johnson has been accused of “sleepwalking” into the break-up of the Union – amid a claim the UK Government “undercuts devolution”.
The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, made the admission during an appearance at the House of Lords Constitution Committee.
The Labour politician claimed the Welsh Government was a “rather vanishing creature” in that it still believed in the UK remaining together.
He said: “The state of the Union is under the greatest pressure it has ever been in my political lifetime.
READ MORE: Welsh nationalism on the rise and the reasons are very similar to Scotland
“In the current UK Government we face for the first time in the history of devolution a Government that is instinctively hostile to devolution.
“The Prime Minister told Conservative backbenchers that devolution was the greatest mistake of the Blair government.
“The actions of his administration bear the hallmark of that. The confrontational approach, the approach of muscular unionism, aggressively unilateral in the way it goes about things.
“We are sleepwalking, if we are not careful, into the end of the Union as we know it.”
Mr Drakeford said the actions of the UK Government were making it increasingly difficult for him to make the case for the Union in Wales.
READ MORE: David Leask: Why is the Welsh blueprint to save United Kingdom being ignored?
He said: “Every single day they create new tensions between us and go on persuading a growing sector of opinion in Wales that Wales will be better off outside the Union.
“We have example after example of where powers are devolved to Wales and where the approach of the UK Government is to cut in, spend money themselves in those devolved areas, undercutting devolution.
“It stokes political tensions and gives ammunition to those people who have come to the conclusion that the Union is over and we would be better off outside it.
“It is a matter of huge regret to me that I have to roll the stone even further up the hill because the UK actively undermines the case for the Union rather than strengthens it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel