Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:18 pm on 24 January 2017.
Thank you, First Minister, for the White Paper and your responses to questions today. I’ve a couple of questions for you myself and the first is your comment that in future we will still need to recruit from Europe for jobs in shortage areas. I absolutely don’t disagree with you that people need to come into the UK, into Wales as well, to meet those job shortages—you named some in your earlier answers—but I wondered whether you can clarify whether you think EU citizens should have preferential treatment in meeting that need. I think there’s an argument to be made that they should, but I’d like to hear what your argument on that is.
Secondly, I just want to add my voice to those who’ve regretted that this wasn’t a fully inclusive process in preparing this document. More than any other party in Wales, I think we represented the views of the Welsh people, insofar as we represented a range of views; we were not representing a single view. As such, perhaps we would have been a useful partner at the table in these early discussions, and I think it is worth remembering that, in terms of popular vote, both ourselves and Plaid Cymru had roughly the same amount of votes and, in excluding us from the table, you have excluded in these early stages those people who voted Conservative in the Welsh Assembly elections. Having said that, there are things in this White Paper that I think that we can agree with and I’m glad to have the opportunity now, even though we should have had it earlier. Having said that, as the Welsh Government is later than the other nations to the table in bringing forward a position, I wonder whether it mightn’t have been worth your waiting just another couple of days until the report of the external affairs committee was produced. That is a cross-party group that has taken and scrutinised, through cross-party means, evidence from third parties, and, as a result, produced a cross-party agreed report. That would’ve helped you, I think, persuade others in this Chamber that you have been more inclusive than you have been, because that report has not been used in an attempt—you’ve not had the opportunity to use that report to influence what you’ve put into the White Paper. Thank you.