Unfortunately, the timing of the Welsh Government’s White Paper came after events, as you were following rather than leading.

As I said in 7 February debate on this, although their White Paper

‘calls for full and unfettered access to the EU single market, and although EU rules make this impossible after border control is restored to the UK, this is not inconsistent with the UK Government’s desire for a free trade deal without membership.’

‘We will continue to attract the brightest and the best, allowing a sovereign UK to determine and meet the workforce needs of our economy and society, be they engineers, scientists, health professionals, carers or farm workers. But the voice of the people was clear; there must be control.’

The UK Government is closely engaged with a high-level stakeholder working group on EU exit, universities, research and innovation, to ensure that the UK builds on its strong global position in research and innovation excellence after leaving the EU. There is already agreement between the UK and the EU that guaranteed rights for EU citizens living in the UK, and for UK citizens living in the EU, will be a priority for the negotiations. The Prime Minister stated that supporting integration and social cohesion means fully respecting and, indeed, strengthening the devolution settlements, but, she said, never allowing our union to become looser and weaker, or our people to drift apart.

Speaking on the article 50 process in the House of Commons, she expressed her expectation that the outcome of this process will be a significant increase in the decision-making powers of each devolved administration. Although uncompromising on core principles, the EU draft negotiating guidelines have flexibility to allow for a deal acceptable to both sides. In response to that, the UK Government reiterated that it is seeking a deep and special relationship with the EU on trade and the many other areas where we have shared aims and values, and that it is confident that such an outcome is in the interests of both sides.

As the Assembly’s chief legal adviser briefed yesterday, when we leave the EU, restrictions on the ability of the devolved administrations to legislate in areas not reserved to the UK Government will disappear. The Labour-Plaid Cymru White Paper calls for a UK framework to provide legal underpinning for effective regulation of issues such as the environment, agriculture and fisheries, which are heavily governed by EU law. And the great repeal Bill White Paper outlines a holding pattern to deliver certainty on exit day by preserving repatriated law, and allowing the UK Government to work with the devolved administrations on UK frameworks.

As the National Farmers Union states, an agricultural framework should prevent unfair competition between devolved administrations, and secure and protect adequate long-term funding for agriculture. And the Farmers Union of Wales has urged the Welsh Government to be ambitious in reviewing EU-derived legislation that adds unnecessarily to the bureaucratic burden faced by farmers.

The UK economy was the fastest growing G7 economy last year. A survey published yesterday found that global central bankers favour sterling over the euro as a long-term stable reserve investment.

When our great union of UK nations sets its mind on something and works together, we are an unstoppable force. No-one in the UK or the EU—