Senior Conservative politician Andrew RT Davies has accused Plaid Cymru ministers of "lying" to campaigners for families who lost relatives to Covid-19.

Davies told the Senedd that Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor had assured a group representing the families a review would have legal powers to compel people to give evidence only to "renege" on this.

Responding to a Tory-led debate calling for a "statutory judge-led public inquiry", a minister said Plaid's Senedd election manifesto was "clear" that the review would lack statutory powers.

Asked to "reflect" on his remarks about ap Gwynfor and another minister "lying", Davies declined adding "I believe they have".

The row stems from messages and conversations exchanged between Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor, his fellow minister Heledd Fychan and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, prior to Plaid Cymru 's Senedd election victory last May.

Two months before her party entered government, Fychan had reassured the bereaved daughter of a Covid-19 victim that Plaid Cymru would not roll back on a commitment to hold a pandemic inquiry with the powers to compel people to give evidence.

In a private message seen by BBC Wales, Fychan told the campaigner that she had "communicated badly" in an interview in which she had said there would be an investigation instead of a full inquiry.

At the same time, during an exchange on X, ap Gwynfor was asked if Plaid was going to "do the dirty" on the campaigners, to which he said he "wouldn't".

Ap Gwynfor said in the exchange: "The common understanding of a 'public inquiry' leads people to think of a decades long process for hundreds of millions of pounds

"We're proposing a focused inquiry with a clear, concise terms of reference."

At the time, the bereaved families group said it saw "no reason" to think Plaid would "backtrack" on its commitment to hold one.

However last week, the Plaid Cymru Welsh government announced it was sticking to a manifesto commitment that there would be a Covid review, stated the investigation would lack powers to force witnesses to come forward and declined to comment on previous messages.

Speaking in the Senedd on Wednesday, Andrew RT Davies called the decision "despicable".

He urged the Welsh government and Plaid Cymru MSs to "get on with an inquiry which senior spokespeople, now ministers, gave to the bereaved families", adding "if you don't this will hang round your necks like a millstone because it was a blatant lie that you sold at the election given the evidence we have seen".

He was asked by Presiding Officer Huw Irranca Davies to "reflect" on that statement.

Davies replied that he would not reflect on his words because "the evidence that the Covid bereaved families have put before us".

Davies told the Senedd this "clearly" shows that the health minister and "the leader of the house", government business manager Fychan, had told the bereaved families group "that there would be a Covid inquiry, review, call it what you will, that would have statutory powers to compel witnesses".

Asked by Irranca-Davies to "again reflect on the fact that he's accused another member in this chamber of lying", Davies said: "I believe they have".

Responding on behalf of the Welsh government, minister Dafydd Trystan Davies said Plaid Cymru had been "clear" going into the Senedd election it was offering a "review" on the pandemic which would not have legal powers.

He said public inquiries these days "face serious challenges around cost, around timeliness, and ability to deliver recommendations".

That is why the government took the decision it did on a review, he added.