Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 13 September 2016.
I think it’s inevitable that free movement of people is controversial. I think it would be difficult to suggest that people voted in favour of free movement of people—seeing as I heard it so many times on the doorstep—as they voted to leave the EU. Part of the problem is we can’t have an exhaustive list of why people decided to leave the EU. I hear what Plaid Cymru say, but you have to accept what the referendum said, and we have to try to understand what the people of Wales want and to try and find a way forward that the majority of people of Wales will actually want to support. For me, what is hugely important is free movement of goods and services and access to the single market. It is a given that, without that, Welsh business and the Welsh economy cannot thrive. Beyond that, of course, there are a number of points of negotiation that cannot be resolved this week or next month, or the month after that, but will need to be resolved in the two-year period following the triggering of article 50.