Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I begin my contribution today by thanking the Conservatives for bringing this debate to the Chamber in a week in which I’m pleased to have already announced more than 500 new jobs through Government intervention? The Green Paper released by the UK Government was certainly an interesting read. The Prime Minister herself gives the document and the new policy a very bold introduction. When she talks about a new approach to government, she says,

‘not just stepping back and leaving business to get on with the job, but stepping up to a new, active role that backs business and ensures more people in all corners of the country share in the benefits of its success.’

This is important, I believe. It demonstrates a major philosophical shift for the Conservative Government, and it recognises that active intervention in the economy makes for stronger economies and more balanced economies. As I sat in my office reading those paragraphs of the introduction to the policy, I did wonder what the disciples of free market economics, such as Keith Joseph, would have made of the conversion that we have now seen from the UK Government. I do like to be collegiate, and so it gives me great pleasure to be able to say that we really are all interventionists now. I will also say that there is a lot in the Green Paper that I can agree with. Prioritising activity that supports business and trade, improving infrastructure and enhancing conditions to support sustainable growth are areas of policy that I am more than willing to put my name to. But, I do want to make two very important points. The first is about actions over words. The Green Paper talks very openly about the opportunities to stimulate the economy in important strategic sectors. It talks about a potential sector deal for steel—a new partnership between steel businesses, the supply chain, research institutions and Government that can support the steel sector to grow and thrive into the future. My reaction is a positive one. The steel sector across the UK is in urgent need of the support that the UK government can offer on a scale that only the UK Government can offer. But it is just a shame that the 12 months that it has taken for the UK Government to come to this conclusion have been the very same 12 months when the steel sector needed Government intervention the most. As Hannah Blythyn rightly said, Tata, unions and the workforce recognise that we have only been able to avert disaster in the steel sector because of interventions by this Welsh Government. So, I do hope that the move to interventionism by the UK Government is going to be realised in actions as well as words.

Another important point I would like to make is about devolution. I do think a key weakness in the Green Paper is the lack of any coherent understanding of the way in which economic policy making has changed in the UK over the past two decades. Now, much of the success of Brexit, as I think we explored yesterday, will be determined by how effectively the UK Government engages with, and opens up to—and engages meaningfully with—devolved administrations and regional areas about the decisions that will affect us all. So, too, this industrial strategy will stand or fall by how much this UK Government wants to do to Wales, and how much the UK Government wants to do with Wales. Now, as the Welsh Government amendment makes clear, and as I have told the Secretary of State, Greg Clark, myself, the Welsh Government stands ready to work collaboratively and meaningfully with the UK Government on areas of shared and overlapping industrial interest. As I have already said, later this spring, we will be publishing our cross-Government strategy to develop the Welsh economy, and we will work with the UK Government to ensure that both approaches work for Wales, its economy and its businesses. I agree entirely in this regard with the fine contribution made by Nick Ramsay, but I want to lay down a very clear marker here and now: the partnership between us and the UK Government must be one founded on respect and of equal standing. It must recognise and respect the devolution settlement.

One area where there is an important and effective partnership is in north Wales. I think it is to his credit that the Secretary of State for Wales and his ministerial team have shown what I believe to be a willingness through the north Wales growth deal to work together in a way that can benefit the region by taking advantage of the cross-border economy. Work is at an early stage but the relationships that have been developed thus far have been encouraging. Again, though, it is about actions, not words. Through the growth deal, the UK Government has another perfect platform with which to demonstrate the more muscular industrial policy that it talks warmly of in the Green Paper.

I look forward in the coming months to seeing tangible progress on electrification of the north Wales main line, more active support for Wylfa Newydd and a clear vision for how the region can plug into the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine as key leaders of dynamic regional economies. Russell George identified the need for greater investment in technology within the regions of England. In north Wales, where he talked specifically of the need to invest, we have announced the creation of an advanced manufacturing research centre to conduct that sort of innovation and research. Also, we are investing in the Menai science park for the same purpose. We are demonstrating, with cash, our determination to invest in north Wales. We look forward to seeing the UK Government doing so likewise.

Now, I do wish to be generous to my Conservative colleagues—[Interruption.] No. I do wish to be generous to my Conservatives colleagues, so I will at this point give a very heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the UK Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, who last week paid a very fulsome tribute in the House of Commons to an important intervention the Welsh Government has made in the Welsh economy in recent years when he praised the major success Cardiff Airport has been since it was purchased by us in 2013. He said:

‘Cardiff airport has been a great success story, and I pay tribute to all those involved.’

With record passenger numbers, new routes and sustained growth, the transport Secretary is absolutely right to celebrate the interventionist policy that we have adopted for Cardiff Airport and the Welsh economy.

So, my message to the UK Government in this debate is a simple one: we will work with you, but on an equal footing, and where the UK Government shows a new willingness to invest in Wales.