00:00 that you do use WhatsApp regularly. On November the 7th when I questioned you on this particular
00:07 issue you said that you didn't use it and then you clarified on November the 8th that you used it
00:14 but not very often. Can you confirm whether you do use WhatsApp regularly as the evidence that
00:21 was put to the Covid inquiry last week in particular when it comes to policy and rule decisions?
00:28 I am a witness at the Covid inquiry. I will answer their questions whatever points they put to me.
00:37 I am not going to offer a preview of what I say to the inquiry. I will pay the inquiry the respect
00:45 I think it believes and I will give my answers to them as a witness. The leader of the Welsh
00:51 Conservatives believes Mark Drakeford is burying his head in the sand and sought help from the
00:55 Llywydd Ellen Jones to get a fuller answer. It can't be just open to questions that you like
01:00 that you answer. You should answer the questions that deserve the answers to give clarity to people
01:06 who want those answers such as the Covid bereaved families. So I ask you again First Minister can
01:11 you clarify the point that I've put to you? I clarified my position on the 7th of November.
01:18 I've nothing to add to that. The inquiry has heard from others. If the inquiry wishes to ask me
01:25 questions on the points that they have heard about of course I will answer the inquiry but
01:30 that is where those answers will be provided. Can I seek your support Presiding Officer because
01:38 surely Parliament deserves greater respect than that? The First Minister is responsible for the
01:45 content of his own answers and that's not a matter for me. I would say that the inquiry is to question
01:52 the First Minister and the First Minister will be appearing before the inquiry next week. That
01:58 didn't stop Friar Lap-Yor-Worth, leader of Plaid Cymru, who says he was asking his own questions
02:02 not the inquiry's questions but again Mark Drakeford declined to answer. Anything that
02:08 takes away the fullest possible account of the goings-on in government during Covid
02:13 means government isn't being as transparent as it can be with the families of those who lost
02:19 loved ones as well as with us as parliamentarians. Will the First Minister concede that deleting
02:25 messages no matter how informal was not only wrong but also in breach of his government's own rule?
02:31 Same answer applies to the leader of Plaid Cymru as it does to the leader of the opposition.
02:35 The inquiry is here to ask those questions. That's why it is in Wales. I'm not going to offer
02:42 a preview of the questions and I will be asked as a witness to the inquiry.
02:49 This is a difficult one because the Covid inquiry is ongoing but opposition argue that we're better
02:54 to speak openly than our elected senate. Mark Drakeford will be questioned in the near future
02:58 both by the inquiry and then by his opposition. James B. Watkins reporting from Wales.
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