After the people of Wales and the UK voted to leave the EU on the 23rd June 2016, the Presidents of the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament issued a joint statement, “we now expect the United Kingdom government to give effect to this decision of the British people as soon as possible … we hope to have the UK as a close partner of the EU also in the future."
Contrary to offensive claims repeatedly made here that the people did not know what they were voting for, the published arguments for Brexit at the time were all about taking back control of our money, borders, laws and trade.
The Prime Minister has made it clear throughout that instead of hard Brexit, she seeks the greatest possible access to the EU through a new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement.
As she said “we are leaving the EU, delivering on the decision made by the British people in the referendum. We are committed to getting the best Brexit deal for people, delivering control of our money, borders and laws while building a new, deep and special partnership with the EU.”
In contrast, this Welsh Government motion asks us to support the approach endorsed by Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, which would deliver none of these things and a Brexit in name only.
Further, as I said here last month, the think tank ‘Open Europe’, told the External Affairs Committee in Brussels “it would be strange if the UK was in the Customs Union. The EU would negotiate trade agreements with third parties without the UK at the table” – and “If the UK is in the Single Market, it would have to accept all the rules without being able to vote on them”.
Whilst claiming to respect the referendum result, both the Labour Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru have spent the last two years promoting approaches that would undermine it and preaching doom and gloom.
They claimed that the agreement secured by the UK Government last December enabling both sides to move on to the next phase of Brexit talks would never happen, that the Brexit transition period secured by the UK Government would never be agreed – before then taking credit for it – and that a way forward allowing this Assembly to give legislative consent to the UK Withdrawal Bill would never be secured.
Each time they were wrong, and yet they are now doing it again as they seek to undermine current negotiations on the UK’s future relationship with the EU, by giving away all our negotiating cards at outset and incentivising the EU side to drive a hard bargain.
Our amendment 1 therefore “recognises that the UK Government is delivering on the decision made in the EU referendum to leave the EU and that its position in negotiations with the EU should not be undermined”.
For centuries, our enemies have sought to divide and destroy us.
And as Scottish Conservative MP Ross Thompson said last week, “all the SNP care about is grievance and independence”.
The same applies to Plaid Cymru, where their spoiler approach would have disrupted the UK’s internal market in which 80% of UK goods and services are traded, destroyed jobs and driven investment from Wales.
As the Prime Minister said in March:
- the agreement we reach with the EU must respect the referendum
- it must endure.
- it must protect people’s jobs and security
- it must be consistent with the kind of country we want to be as we leave: a modern, open, outward-looking, tolerant, European democracy.
- And in doing all of these things, it must strengthen our union of nations and our union of people.
The EU also has two added incentives – the £39 Billion it will receive if it agrees a trade deal, and the importance of access to the UK: where, for example, the External Affairs Committee heard that 10-15% of the GDP of Germany’s 16 states is exposed to the UK market.
Labour’s position would mean continuing to follow a swathe of EU rules with absolutely no say in them.
This breaks Labour’s Brexit promises and does not respect the referendum result.
Seventy per cent of Labour constituencies voted Leave and they want to see the result of the referendum honoured.
People outside Parliaments across the UK are getting a little tired of parliamentary games.
They actually want to know when they’re going to get Brexit, when it will be delivered and when it will be done.