Drakeford may have been short on flamboyance, but his record in government has been far from dull

His admirers and supporters say Mark Drakeford is unassuming and modest. His detractors and opponents would claim he’s dull.

Since the launch of devolution in 1999, Wales has had four first ministers, all Labour. In the same period, Scotland has had six – three Labour and three SNP.

The longest serving first minister in Wales was Rhodri Morgan, a flamboyant extrovert – critics would say maverick – who Tony Blair desperately tried to prevent getting the job.

There’s a famous story – possibly apocryphal – that Blair once stayed the night at Rhodri’s house in Cardiff and thought it was so untidy that nobody living in such a house could possibly be first minister.

Morgan’s successor, Carwyn Jones, was brought down by criticism of his handling of sex allegations against a cabinet member, Carl Sargeant, who took his own life four days after Jones sacked him.

That brought in Drakeford, in 2018, a former academic virtually unknown outside Wales. But beneath his modest and quietly-spoken personality there lurked a committed left-winger who’d backed Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader in 2015.

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And while his style was always cautious and avuncular, he immediately promised to follow “radical socialist traditions” as first minister in the style of Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot, as well as publicly backing Corbyn.

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Although his resignation is in line with a pledge he made in 2018 to serve just five years, his decision to quit now may also have been influenced by the death of his wife Clare earlier this year.

Drakeford’s tenure as first minister will be defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, when he imposed lockdown rules that in many cases were tougher than Boris Johnson’s in England and which his critics claimed were draconian.

For instance, at one point outdoor exercise was limited to once a day, with a maximum fine for breaching the rule £1,920, double the £960 maximum in England.

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Other measures included a two-week “firebreak”, or lockdown, in Wales in October 2020, at a time when Mr Johnson was operating local restrictions in England, and banning supermarkets in Wales from selling items deemed “non-essential”.

He later refused to hold a public inquiry in Wales into his government’s handling of the pandemic. Critics claim that reflected a stubborn refusal to accept criticism or admit mistakes.

But his supporters claim Labour’s best ever results in the Senedd elections in 2021, falling just one seat short of an overall majority, were due to voters’ approval of his handling of the pandemic.

Throughout his time as first minister, however, Drakeford has been regularly attacked by Tory prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak on his record, particularly on his running of the NHS in Wales and long waiting times.

And more recently, Conservative ministers have condemned his introduction of 20mph speed limits in most built-up areas in Wales.

Drakeford has claimed there’s “incontrovertible” evidence that driving more slowly in built-up urban areas saves lives. But Sunak has claimed his 20mph limits are “hard-brained” and said he’s “slamming the brakes” on them.

For now, though, it’s Drakeford who has put the brake on his steering of Wales through the pandemic and other life-or-death issues like the hotly-disputed performance of the NHS in Wales.

Over the past five years, his persona as first minister may have been short on flamboyance or charisma. But his record and his policies in government have been far from dull.

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