Coronavirus was an unprecedented challenge and one which tested governments of all colours in the UK, writes James Evans MS.

Throughout the pandemic, Labour ministers repeatedly insisted we do things differently in Wales and that announcements and decisions taken in England do not apply to us.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and sadly the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay are attempting to avoid any responsibility for the decisions they made during this turbulent time.

They are refusing to hold a Wales-specific inquiry, and instead want scrutiny of their actions to be hidden in the footnotes of the British Government’s UK-wide probe.

The Scottish Government and ministers in Whitehall governments have the respect and decency to launch a separate inquiries so that questions can be answered.

Drakeford has learnt a lesson from his Scottish nationalist friends: cynically and dishonestly engineer a conflict with the British Government. A calculated grievance-monger rules in Cardiff Bay. He is engineering a conflict with the British Government.

The First Minister should not be able to use emergency powers and the widest use of devolved powers ever and think it is okay for them not be scrutinised and be held accountable – he is making a mockery of the parliament he professes to love.

I find this attitude towards the people of Wales intolerable and unacceptable. He believes he can treat the people of our country with contempt, even though thousands of families lost loved ones and his Government’s decisions could have contributed to their death.

We are seeing the UK Government be critiqued for their decisions during the early period of the pandemic in a recent report, and I believe this level of scrutiny is what the public deserve, it might make politicians and civil servants in Westminster who made these decisions feel awkward, but at least they have the decency to let their decisions be investigated and judged by the public.

My Welsh Conservative colleagues, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrats are all united in pushing Labour to announce an inquiry, this must happen.

Labour ministers say they were ‘following the science’ and ‘doing things differently’ because they believed their approach was better than that of the UK Government – then let’s have an inquiry and the people of Wales can judge for themselves.