Boris Johnson writes to Mark Drakeford after his election victory
Boris Johnson has written to Mark Drakeford congratulating him on the Senedd election result and invited him to a "summit meeting" to go over the future of the uk.
Mark Drakeford's Welsh Labour secured 30 of the 60 available seats within the Welsh Parliament after Thursday's election.
It was a result which outperformed even the party's expectations and gives them yet another MS than they had after the 2021 election.
The 2021 election is really as well as Labour have ever performed – the party also won 30 seats in 2003 and 2011, however it hasn't won more.
On Saturday, once the final results were confirmed, UK Pm Boris Johnson wrote to Mr Drakeford and asserted people over the UK are “best served whenever we work together”.
Mr Johnson has also written an individual letter to Nicola Sturgeon, who's also celebrating after her SNP party secured a fourth successive victory within this week's Scottish Parliament election.
The SNP won 64 seats – one a lot more than it won 5 years ago in the last election and Ms Sturgeon has stated there could be "no democratic justification" for blocking an independence vote.
Mr Drakeford has said that Welsh independence was not something which came up on the doorsteps during the campaign, but he has verbal about fears over the UK Government's future plans for devolution.
The letter reads: “Congratulations in your impending re-election as First Minister of Wales. I am looking forward to working with you within the years ahead inside a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect to serve the people of Wales. We both share a belief within the enormous potential of our Uk – both to become a force permanently on the planet and to be an electric train engine of security and prosperity for its citizens at home.
"People across the UK, especially, the folks of Wales would be best served when we interact. Our vaccine roll-out has been a clear demonstration of this. The united kingdom Government procured vaccines at scale for citizens across the whole UK. The dedicated and hardworking staff of the NHS in Wales excelled to get jabs into arms from Cardiff to Caernarfon. This is Team UK in action, and I recommit the uk Government to working with the Welsh Government in this cooperative spirit.
"As we continue our work to overcome the acute phase of the pandemic, we should now begin the very first steps of our recovery. We know this will be a difficult journey. The broad shoulders of the UK have supported jobs and businesses the length and breadth of the nation, but we all know that economic recovery will be a serious shared responsibility.
"From hours of lost learning in schools, to delays within the NHS and courts, the pandemic has additionally posed challenges for the public services which will make time to address. In doing so, we need to show exactly the same spirit of unity and cooperation that marked our combat the pandemic.
Mr Johnson also commended Mr Drakeford on his handling from the coronavirus pandemic in Wales, and invited him to a meeting with other leaders to discuss the continuing recovery in the pandemic.
He added: “You have rightly made COVID recovery a priority. To that end, I must invite you to join me, UK Government colleagues and others in a summit meeting to go over our shared challenges and how we can interact in the coming months and years to overcome them.
"I will be writing in similar terms to the First Minister and also the First and deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland. We'll all have our own perspectives and concepts – and we'll not necessarily agree – however i am confident that by gaining knowledge from each other we are able to build back better, within the interests of the people we serve.”
