Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:32 pm on 28 June 2016.
I beg your pardon; the leader of the Welsh Conservatives—old habits, I’m afraid. The leader of the Welsh Conservatives, what he said—he has put himself forward as somebody who can add to the vision of the future for Wales. What we had today was flowery waffle. He was asked—. [Interruption.] I’m trying to enter into the spirit of the debate and be kind. I asked him to give us some idea of the opportunities that exist and he failed to name any. Now, I don’t delight in that, because the danger is that those who have made promises on the ‘leave’ side see those promises fall apart. Those people who voted ‘leave’ will then take their anger out in different ways, and that will mean that we will see support for extreme, racist parties of the far right. That’s my great, great worry, and so there is a duty and a responsibility on all of us, including the ‘leave’ campaigners, to explain what happens next and do that quickly, rather than say, ‘Well, it’ll all be fine; there’ll be innovation here’ and whatever he said. We need more than waffle; we do need detail.
I do say to the leader of the Welsh Conservatives—I got it right this time—that this vote must not be used as a reason to leach powers away from the people of Wales. I have his exact words in front of me, what he said this afternoon. He said, and I quote:
‘It is vital that Wales’s interests are protected and secured—’
Fine.
‘—and communities which have had this money spent are given the confidence that the money will continue irrespective of whether it comes from the Treasury in London or Welsh Government.’
The Welsh Government can’t make that money up; I can tell you that now. And then he added:
‘That money could…come directly from Westminster…. Why should the Welsh Government handle the money?’
That’s what he said. I say this to him now: economic development is devolved.