A CALL for businesses in Conwy and Denbighshire to be at the front of the queue for financial support has been made to the Welsh Government.

Darren Millar MS for Clwyd West has raised their plight as they have already suffered three weeks of local lockdown and asked the Finance Minister, Rebecca Evans MS, to ensure they have priority.

He said: “The Minister may assert businesses are being well supported, but my office is inundated with emails and calls from desperate business owners who would beg to differ.”

He told the Welsh Parliament: “Businesses in Conwy and Denbighshire are literally on their knees, and there are many jobs hanging by a thread.

“It's been almost three weeks since you put Conwy and Denbighshire, along with other parts of North East Wales, into local lockdown. They already have a wound three weeks deeper economically than the wound going to be inflicted as a result of the Wales wide lockdown, yet they have not received a penny to support them in the local lockdown period." He said the Welsh Government has more than £4.4 billion's worth of firepower at its disposal. He added: “Can you assure businesses in Conwy and Denbighshire they, because of the three weeks additional pain, will be at the front of the queue for support?”