Shadow Counsel General and North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has questioned the Counsel General over The Welsh Government’s position on membership of the EU Single Market and trade and travel barriers, after the First Minister appeared to “back-pedal” on this the previous day.
Speaking in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood also spoke of the benefits of Brexit.
In a spokesperson’s question to the Counsel General, he said:
“As I said here in March 2019, the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru White Paper, 'Securing Wales' Future', which called for continued membership of the EU Single Market, ‘would mean no control of our borders, our trade and our laws, and would therefore be Brexit in name only’.
“Speaking here last week, the First Minister extolled the virtues of Wales and the UK being inside the Single Market, although he appeared to back-pedal on this yesterday after Keir Starmer's statement that Labour has ruled out re-joining the Single Market as party policy, but claimed that he could remove trade and travel barriers nonetheless. What advice would you therefore give as Counsel General to both the First Minister and Mr Starmer about the legal barriers applying to this?”
The Counsel General replied:
“Well, the first bit of advice I'd give is to maintain the importance of international law and the rule of law. The second bit of advice I'd give is to oppose and not to support any bits of legislation that undermine those principles, one of them would be to, obviously, oppose the direction of the Bill of Rights,”
Mr Isherwood responded: “An interesting response. Of course, the Court of Human Rights is outside the EU structure completely and, as you know, the UK played an integral part in establishing it.”
He added: “The UK Government has been seeking to negotiate an agreement to tackle the barriers that do exist, in order to maximise opportunities for low-friction trade and safeguard the integrity of the UK single market - something that any UK Government would encounter barriers with.
“ In the meantime, is it not the case in law that, although the job is not finished and the UK needs to go further and faster to deliver the opportunities of Brexit for the entire UK, because of Brexit, the UK Government has been able to deliver the fastest vaccine roll-out anywhere in Europe, cut VAT and red tape, strike 70 free trade deals and announce the delivery of new freeports, including an initial one in Wales? And, further, is it not also the case that the UK has topped the chart in attracting the most FinTech investment across Europe; that the UK has reclaimed the top spot in Europe and the second place internationally, after the USA, in the Global Soft Power Index 2022; and, brilliantly, that Welsh food and drink exports hit a record high in 2021, including a £51 million increase to the EU?”