Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 15 June 2016.
Can I thank the Member for his kind comments about my appointment and wish him well in his role, as well, in the Assembly? There can be no guarantee that that money would come to Wales. I rather fear that it will be squirrelled away to places like Wiltshire rather than come here to Wales. I think it’d probably end up in the Cotswolds rather than Cymru. There is no guarantee that Wales would benefit from EU money that is repatriated back to the UK. Do we really want to jeopardise, right now, next week, the progress that we’ve made on steel, what is an incredibly sensitive position? We would throw that crisis even deeper into the unknown were we to vote to leave the EU. We would throw 18,000 jobs, certainly at risk, if we were to vote to leave the EU. We would put at risk 52,000 apprenticeships that people are going to be seeking to fill in the next five years if we voted to leave the EU. We would also put at risk ReAct, which has provided opportunities. It’s provided hope for 19,000 people who have faced redundancy. That’s why Europe exists: to provide hope for people who need it. Do we really want to vote out of Europe and compromise that sort of opportunity for millions of people in Britain?