Starmer toasts Welsh Labour with Wrexham Lager brewery visit
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford have visited a brewery in North Wales on the campaign trail ahead of Senedd elections next month.
Welsh Labour is promising new jobs and major investment for the region including a medical school for Bangor and a new national park.
The visit came as elsewhere in the town a massive police operation was unfolding at Wrexham Maelor hospital, with security turning people away.
Sir Keir, thrown out of a pub in England recently by a landlord angry at Labour’s opposition during the pandemic, visited the Wrexham Lager brewery accompanied by the First Minister.
The UK party leader said: “Welsh Labour’s offer for North Wales is very ambitious.
“It’s about jobs – jobs for the future, green jobs, it’s about the NHS, the future of medicine and medical supplies in North Wales.
“It’s about apprenticeships, it’s about a special offer, a really important offer, for the under-25s – for under-25s there’s a guarantee of a job, of training, of apprenticeship etc.
“That is fantastically important for those that are under 25 and everybody else who cares about the next generation.
“We are fighting for every vote, we are fighting for every seat.”
He urged voters to look at the record of Welsh Labour under Mr Drakeford.
Sir Keir added: “His leadership has been extremely good in this pandemic and I’ve been talking to people of all different political persuasions who say that Mark Drakeford and Welsh Labour have led through this pandemic very carefully in a reassuring way, that has taken Wales through a very, very difficult period.
“And that is his record that he’s proudly standing on. Coupled with that he’s got the ambition for the future.”
Sir Keir pulled a pint of lager at the brewery before sipping his drink, and Mr Drakeford – the man who still has Welsh pubs closed – also sipped a pint.
Wales is two weeks behind England in lifting restrictions, with pubs only opening after lockdown for the first time on Monday.
Wales has the lowest level of virus infections in the UK and is third in the world in terms of vaccine delivery.
But Mr Drakeford said he will continue to listen to the scientific evidence as restrictions are lifted.
He said: “We are in a very good place in Wales. Throughout the whole of the pandemic, I think I’ve only ever been asked two questions: either ‘Are you going too fast?’ or ‘Are you going too slow?’
“I’m hopeful we can do more, now that we know the numbers are as low as they are.
“But we will do it in a way that continues to make sure that people in Wales are safeguarded from what is still a global public health crisis.”
He is expected to make an announcement about Covid-19 restrictions on Friday.
The Welsh Parliament election will take place on Thursday May 6.
