First Minister Mark Drakeford bans Welsh from going to England - and warns the English 'not to try to escape to Wales' - when lockdown starts on Thursday
Wales will close its border to anyone without a 'reasonable excuse' after Boris Johnson's lockdown starts on Thursday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said today.
The Welsh leader said that only people carrying out 'essential' work would be allowed in and out of the principality from Thursday, after the Prime Minister's shock weekend announcement.
Mr Drakeford has said the border between England and Wales may well now be the hardest it has been 'for several centuries at least'.
The effective bar on Welsh people travelling into England came as he revealed a new set of national rules would be introduced across Wales once its own 17-day firebreak lockdown ends on November 9.
And he took a swipe at English people seeking to visit Wales after that date to escape the lockdown.
'We will be coming out of our firebreak just as England begins a month-long lockdown and it is really important that as we open up, Wales doesn't become an escape for people seeking to circumvent the new tighter restrictions imposed by the Prime Minister,' he said.
Mr Drakeford told a press conference that England and Wales share a 'long and porous border', with around 150,000 people crossing daily when lockdown is not in place.
'People who live in Wales but work in England will have a reasonable reason for travelling to work, and people who live in England and work in Wales clearly have a reasonable excuse for coming across the border to work here,' he added.
'But it will be a restricted list of essential purposes, rather than the normal to-ing and fro-ing across the border that you would have seen in less fraught and difficult times.'
The Welsh leader said that only people carrying out 'essential' work would be allowed in and out of the principality from Thursday, after the Prime Minister's shock weekend announcement
It is not yet clear how the ban would be policed.
Mr Drakeford made a similar move last month after the start of the Welsh firebreak. Police commissioners in Wales suggested they could set up road blocks and follow up tips from the public.
However, they have admitted there was not the capacity to 'line the border with patrol cars'.
Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government decided to impose the firebreak lockdown when Wales was 'tracking a reasonable worst-case scenario' rather than exceeding it.
Some of the new measures to be introduced from November 9 are still being finalised.
But they include:
Mr Drakeford said that in addition, all schools will reopen, churches and places of worship will be able to resume services, local authority services will resume and community centres will be available for small groups to meet safely indoors.
He said: 'Each of us has an important part to play in slowing the spread of coronavirus in Wales and saving lives - we cannot do this without your help.
'Everyone has made so many sacrifices this year already. To make sure we do not lose all this hard work, we need to carry on looking after each other and keeping ourselves safe.
'This is a virus which thrives on human contact.
'Social contact is important to all of us but to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, we need to think carefully about all our meetings and contacts with other people and try and reduce them to reduce our risk of infection.
'Rather than us asking what we can or can't do, we need to ask ourselves what should we be doing to keep our families safe.
'Government rules and regulations are here to help. But the real strength we have is in the choices we make and the actions we take together.'