6. Will the First Minister outline any discussions the Welsh Government has had with key anchor companies such as Airbus following the outcome of the EU referendum? OAQ(5)0094(FM)

We are in regular dialogue with anchor companies and the economy Secretary met with Airbus last Friday. We will be writing to key companies in Wales, including the anchor companies, with a view to holding a business engagement forum focusing on issues raised by the result.

Thank you, First Minister. As an Assembly Member in north-east Wales, many of my constituents are employed in large workplaces like Airbus. The vote to leave the EU has not only created uncertainty for these people and their families, but also the many hundreds employed via the supply chain reliant on the aerospace site. Can the First Minister assure the workforce and their families that this Government will fight both for their future livelihood and the industrial jewel in the crown of north Wales?

I can give that absolute assurance. I know how important Airbus is as an employer in Wales. I know, particularly at Broughton, the thousands who are employed there will be uncertain about the future, as are all manufacturers in Wales at the moment. They are waiting to see what the outcome of the negotiations actually is, particularly over access to the single market. If we do not get access to the single market, there are immense difficulties for our manufacturers and we will work hard to make sure that companies like Airbus continue to benefit from access to a market of 500 million people.

Following on from that point, has the Welsh Government had an opportunity to make an initial analysis at least of the relative merits of the various—a rather bewildering array, possibly—Brexit options that have been mentioned: Norway, Switzerland, Canada and Singapore, even, bizarrely? Particularly because of the importance of preservation of access to the single market, as he’s just said, has he come to the conclusion, as have many in the business community, that EEA EFTA possibly looks the least-worst option on the table at the moment?

Given that that would ensure access to the single market, and that is the only model that’s currently on the table, the answer must be ‘yes’. But, of course, we have to accept that that would involve free movement of people and, of course, we know that many, many people voted on that issue, above the issue of jobs, actually—I heard it on the doorstep—in the referendum a week last Thursday. The difficulty is: at this moment in time, there’s no model that’s being proposed that would allow access to the single market without there being free movement of people as well. Norway haven’t done it; Switzerland haven’t been able to do it. It is simply the EEA model. The reality is that the UK Government has no real idea of what kind of model might work in the future, which shows the uncertainty of the times that we’re living in, which is why we want to provide as much certainty as we can, from a Welsh Government perspective, and, secondly, why certainty needs to be provided as soon as possible at UK level.

First Minister, as a constituency Member in Aberconwy, I’m only too well aware of the valuable importance of Airbus in Broughton with the jobs—6,000 jobs—that they provide. I know in a statement after the referendum result they did say that they are really looking to constructively work with the UK Government to provide support for their workers and, indeed, to carry on with their operations here. How will you, as First Minister, and your Welsh Government provide the assurance that they probably need right now? Have you been to visit? Have you come up to north Wales and visited Airbus in order to have those senior management level talks, so that they do receive that assurance that you will be working equally as hard as the UK Government to support them?

I met with the president of Airbus in the week of the referendum. I know that the Cabinet Secretary has also met with Airbus. I have regular meetings with Airbus to listen to their concerns. All manufacturers are saying to me that they are concerned about access to the single market. They are European operations, and if the UK is outside of the market they sell in, there are consequences for investment in the future. It doesn’t mean that they could close them overnight—of course it doesn’t—but if you are an international company, you’re more likely to invest inside a market than outside it. That’s why it’s hugely important that we continue to have free access to the single market, tariff free. I cannot imagine what our Welsh lamb farmers will do if a 15 per cent tariff is imposed on the lamb that they produce and that is sold in the European market, which is why—of course, steel as well: the steel tariffs would be even higher—it’s vitally important that, regardless of the other issues, bearing in mind the way that people voted, access to the single market without tariffs remains.

Would the First Minister confirm that, and I’m not implying in any way that you were involved, during the 1970s, France and Britain co-operated to build Concorde? I believe it was called ‘entente cordiale’, well before we became members of the EU. The inference of this is, of course, that matters at Airbus will continue unabated and that this debate now is another example of scaremongering, which we had both before Brexit and is now carrying on after Brexit.

I can absolutely assure the Member I had nothing to do with Concorde—its maiden flight occurred when I was two, so I can say that. [Laughter.] But, bear in mind, of course, that Concorde was an example of UK and French co-operation that was a failure, actually. As a project, it didn’t work—it never worked on a commercial basis. He has to bear in mind that the UK was desperate to join the common market in 1973—desperate to join—because the UK economy was in a weak state. This idea that, somehow, the UK was forced against its will to join is just simply wrong—it was desperate to join for many, many years. Of course there’ll be co-operation; we understand that. All of a sudden, the drawbridge isn’t going to be pulled up, but we have to understand that we are part, at the moment, of a market of 500 million people. If we have to pay a price to enter that market, then our manufacturers will pay a price to enter the market and, ultimately, there’ll be a price in terms of jobs. That’s the last thing, surely, that anybody wants to see.