Could we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for environment, energy and climate change regarding future Welsh Government policy towards farming payments and farm support systems in particular? I’m very concerned that the decision to leave the European Union is being used as a Trojan horse by some people to get a land grab onto Welsh devolved policy. We heard the leader of the Welsh Conservatives only this week claiming that farmers would be happier for Westminster to decide farming policy rather than here in our democratically elected Parliament. Well, I’m not happy, and the farmers I talk to aren’t happy about that.

They’re not always happy about what the Welsh Government does, of course not, but there’s a difference between Government and Parliament and it shouldn’t be right that the decision to leave the European Union is being used by the Conservatives not only to take back farming policy from Wales—and, in turn, environmental policy, because they go hand in hand—but also already we’ve heard that convergence and regional development funding policy should also be retained by Westminster.

We want Westminster’s sticky hands off our policies that have already been devolved so that future Governments here can take the decision for the Welsh people. What’s really at the heart of this, of course, is the Conservatives know they will never win a majority in this Parliament so they use the back-door method of a Conservative Government—[Interruption.]—a Conservative Government in Westminster to decide policies for Wales. We fought against that for 40 years and we won that fight and we won’t fight again.

I have to say to the Minister that what’s lacking is there’s a bit of a vacuum. Because the Welsh Government isn’t coming forward with clear plans that Welsh farmers can get hold of, can critique or possibly agree with or say something different should be done, there’s a vacuum for these pernicious ideas to be circulated by the Conservatives. So, I think it would be very valuable for the Welsh Government now to set out its principles for how it will take this forward.

A final point on that that I think the statement should address is there’s a world of difference between four nations coming together at a UK level and agreeing things that are a common good in the field of farming and environment, including things like animal welfare and standards of slaughter and all that kind of—animal diseases. There’s a world of difference between that and Westminster deciding and then telling us what to do.

The second element that I’d like a statement on, because I think it’s related but slightly separate, is how the Welsh Government intends to deal with a potential crisis in migrant farm workers next year. It’s already been flagged up that late-season crops—cauliflowers, potatoes and so forth—at the moment, we’ve about 70 per cent of the migrant workforce that we need to pick those crops. That’s maybe not seen to be a huge issue for Wales at the moment, and more an issue for Lincolnshire and parts of England, but we do have between 20,000 and 30,000 migrant farm workers and food production workers coming into Wales each year, and, if we see a reduction similar to that next year then we will struggle to maintain our abattoirs, we will struggle to maintain some of our seasonal crop picking, and we will struggle to maintain our food production facilities in Wales. If the UK Government is not prepared to give the necessary assurances for EU workers to come and do that migrant work, then we need to look afresh at the idea of Welsh work visas and arguing the case for that, because our agricultural needs and workforce needs must be met in order to ensure that there’s food on our plates. So, I hope we can have two statements from the Government on those matters.