Covid: Welsh government spends £32,000 on podcast
- Published
A taxpayer-funded podcast featuring interviews with the first minister has been labelled a waste of money.
The Welsh government spent almost £32,000 on 10 episodes of Unlocked: Covid Stories from Wales.
The Welsh Tories criticised ministers for not being transparent about how the show - in which Mr Drakeford defends his Covid record - is funded.
The Welsh government said it was produced as part of the Keep Wales Safe, external campaign.
Plaid Cymru criticised the timing of the podcast's publication during the council election campaign.
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies tweeted that it said "a lot that the first minister is happy to defend his record on a podcast he has bought and paid for, but not in front of a Wales-specific Covid inquiry".
Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Jane Dodds said the "lack of transparency" shown by Welsh Labour was "disappointing".
Promotional material for the podcast said its presenter Dot Davies, who also presents programmes on BBC Radio Wales, will "be hearing from a range of notable people" from Wales.
In his interview, Mr Drakeford said it was a "real" possibility Wales could have run out of ventilators during April 2020, or that loved ones would not have been able to bury those who died.
Mark Drakeford appeared in the first episode of the podcast
He said his approach to easing restrictions had "kept Wales safe".
He added there had been "nothing like the levels of people falling ill that you have seen in some parts of England" during the Omicron wave.
"That's why we have the lowest rates of coronavirus in any part of the United Kingdom today," he had said.
It is not clear when the podcast, published on Sunday, was recorded.
The latest Office of National Statistics swab survey figures suggest one in 13 people in Wales had Covid in the week ending Saturday 2 April, while the figure was also one in 13 people in England and Scotland and one in 16 in Northern Ireland.
Neither the podcast itself, or the description for the episode, said it was funded by the Welsh government.
The nature of the production was confirmed by the Welsh government when asked by the BBC.
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A Welsh government spokesman said: "Covid-19: Stories from Wales was produced by the Welsh government as part of the Keep Wales Safe campaign."
The show was also produced with five episodes in Welsh and five in English, costing £31,984 to produce, the spokesman added.
The second episode in English features singer and actor Sophie Evans and rugby player Ellis Jenkins, while Mr Drakeford appears in both the English and Welsh language versions.
Campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru have accused Welsh Labour of using their "losses as an electoral campaign tool".
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A Welsh Conservative spokesman said: "As we saw during the pandemic when Mark Drakeford and his ministers would address the media before the Senedd they profess to love, transparency is not something Labour is interested in.
"So, it comes as no surprise to see that tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money have now been spent on a podcast to keep people safe - two years after the pandemic began and after most people have been triple-jabbed - without a disclaimer making it clear that listeners will be footing the bill."
"What Labour should be doing to keep Wales safe is fix the record-long NHS waiting lists," the spokesman said, adding: "not wasting time and money on a puff-piece podcast."
Plaid Cymru said: "There are two issues - one is the principle of Welsh government using public money to create a podcast in which they are not mentioned and yet is used to promote the First Minister as a 'special guest'; the second is to do with timing.
"The first minister is front and centre of Labour's local election campaign, and it comes as a surprise that a podcast generating positive press stories about the party leader has been paid for by the Welsh government."
In a statement, Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Jane Dodds said: "The Welsh government should not be spending public money on PR campaigns.
"It is disappointing that this has happened and the lack of transparency Labour has shown until this point."
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