Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 21 June 2016.
He should look at his own benches when it comes to employing those from eastern Europe, shouldn’t he? I mean, the reality is, on the one hand, his party says, ‘Well, of course, you have to stop people coming in’, and on the other hand, quite happy to employ people when they are here. The reality is that, out of a population of 3 million in Wales, we have 47,000 people who are nationals of another EU state—it is a very small percentage. Many of those people are in skilled jobs: they are working in medicine, they are working in nursing, they are working in dentistry. I can show him, if he likes, in my own constituency, these people and the service that they contribute. The point is this: if you are a doctor and you wish to take your skills around Europe, you are far more likely to go somewhere where there are no barriers than a country where you have to fill in forms to work. It’s simple human nature. The more barriers we put in place to skilled workers, the less likely they are to come here.