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Politician breaches Covid rules to drink with colleagues

The leader of the Conservatives in Wales has resigned after a row over drinking alcohol in a Welsh parliament building.

Paul Davis was among a group of politicians who drank alcohol on the Senedd estate in December after a pub alcohol ban came into force in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

Davies said on Saturday that the row over the incident had become a "distraction".

"For the sake of my party, my health and my own conscience, I simply cannot continue," he said in a statement.

Paul Davis, left, and a stock image of a beer.
Paul Davis, leader of the Conservatives in Wales, has resigned after drinking alcohol in a parliament building. Source: Welsh Parliament/Getty

"Therefore, I am stepping down as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Welsh Parliament with immediate effect."

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Davies was drinking with a group of other politicians in a building at the Senedd, Welsh parliament, on December 8 and 9 after the Welsh government had imposed a ban on pubs serving alcohol as part of a range of coronavirus restrictions.

The drinking incident drew criticism that politicians were not following the rules they imposed on the general public.

Davies says that he did not break the rules and that social distancing was maintained.

"What we did was to have some alcohol with a meal we heated up in a microwave, which was a couple of glasses of wine on the Tuesday and a beer on the Wednesday. I broke no actual COVID-19 regulations," he said.

His colleague, chief whip Darren Millar, said he was also resigning from his role over the incident.

-DPA with PA

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