Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:04 pm on 17 January 2017.
The issue with Brexit has been the issue of Sewel for me. The Prime Minister herself said today that there will be no roll-back of powers, and I have to take her on her word, but if it is enshrined in law that there’s a requirement of consent from a devolved parliament or assembly, then that obviously carries more weight than if it’s just a convention. So, enshrining that in law is important, not just in terms of Brexit negotiations, but in terms of negotiations on a number of issues in the future where the UK Government will not be able to say, ‘Of course, in Scotland it’s the law, but in Wales, it isn’t, so we don’t have to pay Wales the same regard as Scotland.’ That is important not just in terms of presentation, but in terms of the law as well. So, we will have an imperfect reserved-powers model, but on balance I believe that it’s in the best interests of Wales, as we look at dealing with the issue of Brexit, that we take what is on offer today, and see it as another step on what is a long journey of devolution. Remember where we were in 1999 and how we persuaded the people of Wales to move from grudging support for the principle of devolution in 1999, to overwhelming support for primary powers in 2011, and understand that this is a Bill that will take Wales forward as a package. There are some areas where there’s a need for improvement, and some areas where there is a need for change. Why should it be the case that people in Wales have to pay air passenger duty and people in Scotland don’t? That makes no coherent sense at all.