First Minister Mark Drakeford says his relationship with Boris Johnson is 'remote'
First Minister Mark Drakeford has told the Welsh Affairs Committee his relationship with Boris Johnson is "remote".
The Welsh Labour leader was responding to committee chairman and Conservative MP Stephen Crabb who asked if there was a "meeting of minds" between the two men.
Mr Drakeford said: "I would have to describe my relationship with the Prime Minister as remote.
"Both in the sense that I've met him only once myself - I've been at a number of meetings where there's been large numbers of other people present - and he is yet to call a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee of first ministers and himself.
"In that sense I would say I've had a very modest level of contact with the Prime Minister. And the remoteness isn't just in that way, I'm afraid we rarely have a meeting of minds."
First Minister Mark Drakeford also said the way the UK Government engages with the devolved Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish administrations "is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the United Kingdom."
Mr Drakeford told the Welsh Affairs Committee there had been more frequent meetings called by Number 10 since the new year, but they were still being arranged "on a relatively random basis."
He said: "There is no institutional architecture to make the United Kingdom work. It is all ad-hoc, random, and made up as we go along.
"And I'm afraid that really is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the UK.
"And if I have an anxiety about the lack of regular engagement between the Prime Minister and other parts of the UK, it is more that I think without that then the security of the future of the UK becomes more difficult.
"Without the Prime Minster playing his part in all of that, I think it undermines the efforts of those of us - and I include myself certainly in this - who want to craft a successful future for the UK."