4. Will the Minister make a statement on the impact of European structural funding in Islwyn? OAQ(5)0047(FLG)

I thank Rhianon Passmore for the question. Islwyn has benefitted from structural funding in many different ways, from the very local support of two apprentices at a Newbridge dental surgery to the far wider impact, for example, of the Aspire to Achieve programme for at-risk young people and the Business Wales SME and entrepreneurship support scheme.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. Since 2007, EU structural funds projects alone have, in Wales, helped nearly 73,000 people into work, helped over 234,000 people gain qualifications, supported the creation of nearly 12,000 businesses and created some 37,000 jobs. The UK Government’s commitment to guarantee expenditure for all European structural investment fund schemes approved prior to the UK leaving the EU is to be welcomed. What impact would be wrought on communities, people and businesses across Wales if the UK Government does not, penny for penny, fund Wales the moneys it presently receives from the European Union?

Well, the impact would be the one that I’m sure the Member would anticipate: that those investments that we are able to make, which help to shape the futures for individuals and communities and to secure the long-term success of the Welsh economy, would be set back if we did not have the money that is currently guaranteed to us as a result of our membership of the European Union. It would be a strange message, I’m sure she would agree, to take to members of her constituency if it were to turn out that Wales did less well out of its membership of the United Kingdom than it does out of its membership of the European Union.

Cabinet Secretary, it is clear from the result of the EU referendum that the people living in Islwyn and other areas of South Wales East did not feel the impact and benefit of European structural funding. Over 50 per cent of people living in Caerphilly council voted to leave the EU, over 56 per cent in Merthyr Tydfil, 60 per cent in Torfaen, and 62 per cent in Blaenau Gwent. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that these figures show the total failure of the Labour Party to demonstrate the benefit of EU membership in its heartland, hindered as it was by the half-hearted support for ‘remain’ from Jeremy Corbyn, and how will funds be supplemented to the South Wales East valleys by your Government in the near future?

I’m afraid, Dirprwy Lywydd, that it’s like arriving at the cinema to find a reel from an old film still going on in front of you. Of course I am aware of the results of the referendum. [Laughter.] I’m equally absolutely certain that the people in those communities to which he has referred did not vote for a poorer and more impoverished future.